


Pink Cloud

by athenake



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Grand Theft Auto Setting, Even Worse Social Skills, Fake AH Crew, FakeHaus, Gen, Illustrated, Jealousy, Miscommunication, Multi, NOW WITH ART!!!, Really Bad Lying, theyre just friends guys its okay just leave them be???
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-29
Updated: 2016-11-29
Packaged: 2018-09-03 01:18:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 49,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8690887
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/athenake/pseuds/athenake
Summary: Even if his crew – and girlfriend – tease Gavin about having a civilian as a friend, he’s not going to be pushed away from her quite so easily. After multiple close calls between the Fake AH Crew, FakeHaus, and his new friend being stuck in the middle, Gavin’s starting to wonder how long it’ll be before he trips up, slips up, and shows her who he really is. But, for now, he’s happy to play dumb, to hide his gold, put away his guns, and simply pretend everything’s normal for once as Elyse takes a picture of the tomato sauce on his face and lettuce in his beard.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> i was craving FakeHaus/FAHC pairings, but then thought “what if platonic ship”, gavin is my go-to person for writing, and i love elyse. theyre both blind idiots in this honestly but i love them. the only smart ones appear to be meg and ryan. rip
> 
> a MASSIVE thank you to the lovely [fahchaus](http://fahchaus.tumblr.com/) for the gorgeous art!!!!!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Then Gavin spots Elyse at the register and slips his right hand into his pocket to hide the expensive rings on his fingers. He’s grateful his sleeves are long enough to cover his (stolen) watch as he pushes his sunglasses atop his head.
> 
> When Elyse spots him, she does a double take and quirks an eyebrow, almost failing to recognise him. “Wow, special occasion?”
> 
> “Uh, yeah, Boss’ birthday party, we’re all getting dressed up.” It’s a total lie. Elyse pauses and nods slowly at the explanation, like she doesn’t quite believe him but she’s not questioning it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> please be nice to me i am a smol meme i hope you enjoy reading this purely self-indulgent fic  
>  _ **Being “on a Pink Cloud” means to feel almost like being high, but without using drugs or alcohol.**_

_We're a couple of birds in a wolf den,_ __  
_But to us it still feels like heaven,_ __  
_Cause we don't let the bad vibes get in,_  
_We don't let them win._

* * *

“Michael. Hey, Michael, boi, hey-”

“No.”

Gavin tilts his head from his place kneeling on the edge of the bed, “Aw, wot? I didn’t even ask you nothing.”

“Make him go awayyyyy,” Lindsay whines, rolling over to hide from the light streaming through the door to the hallway.

Ignoring Lindsay's complaints, Michael groans and rolls over, away from Gavin, to drag a pillow over his head. “You were going to,” he grouses, voice muffled by sheets and mattress, “And _no_ , whatever you want, it’s too early. Leave me to sleep in peace.”

“No, it’s not too early to go out, it’s-” Gavin leans over to the bedside table and grabs Michael’s phone, the lock screen lighting up. “Oh bugger, is that the time?”

Michael turns his head just enough to glare at Gavin. “ _Yes_ , now _fuck off!_ Get out of my room!” Lindsay chips in something about the room being theirs, not just Michael's, but mostly goes unheeded. No matter how much Gavin pouts or sighs, Michael’s immovable and refuses to get up. “Go back to your dumb ass computer and get to work, we need to find that guy.”

“But I’ve been working _all night_ , Michael. I haven’t found him yet and I want to go find some more hints! Like we’re pretending to be investigators.”

Michael yanks the pillow off his head and pushes himself up, a concerned crease between his eyebrows. “What the _hell,_ it’s seven AM!” he huffs, squinting at his phone screen.

“Shhh…” Lindsay hushes, eyes scrunching up, “Sleepy time.”

Michael presses a hand to his forehead, once again closing his eyes. “Have you slept at all?” Gavin shakes his head and rubs a hand at his eyes, trying to wipe away the dark bags beneath them. Michael groans and kicks at Gavin’s knee. “Get out of here, go have some coffee or something. If you need help finding clues, get Ryan; he doesn’t sleep, at least not that I’ve seen.”

“Oh, good idea!” Gavin bounces off the bed, causing Michael to grunt in annoyance and drag the pillow back over his head. Gavin doesn’t bother with closing the door, leaving a displeased Lindsay asking a disgruntled Michael to shut the door for her.

Instead, Gavin hurries over to Ryan’s room and knocks on the door. He hears shuffling from the other side before the door opens and Ryan stands there with a quirked eyebrow. “What do you need?”

“Need to gather more clues and ask around for information, want to come with?”

“Yeah, just give me a few minutes,” Ryan says with a wave of his hand. Gavin nods and turns around, walking back out and into the living area. He finds his laptop, still waiting with numerous tabs open, trying to track down their recent supplier who managed to screw up their ammunition order. He clicks a couple more times and pulls out his phone, typing the address from the page into his notes and saving them.

Sure enough, Ryan approaches him not even two minutes later, his skull mask in place and paint surrounding his eyes beneath it.  He lobs a shirt at Gavin and it hits him square in the head. “Oi!”

“You stink and I’m not risking you fainting in the shower from exhaustion. Put that on and let’s go.” Gavin looks down at the shirt in his hands, a smile coming to his face when he reads the text. He remembers personally ordering this shirt; the person on the phone sounded _very_ confused when he requested it, but he got his shirt in the end. And he has to admit; a long night of working trying to track someone down _does_ make him a bit icky. He swaps out his button up for the t-shirt and yawns, rubbing at his eyes.

“Stop by a café first,” Gavin says, closing his laptop and standing up. He doesn’t realize he’s putting on Jeremy’s shoes as Ryan walks by and selects car keys from the kitchen. Gavin follows after him as they leave the penthouse, Ryan shutting the door quietly so as to not awaken the others. Gavin’s never been more grateful for elevators than right now; he doubts he could have made it all the way down the stairs without passing out or begging Ryan to carry him the rest of the way.

It’s only when Gavin sits himself down in the passenger seat of the Zentorno that he realises he’s not wearing his aviators. He holds a hand over his face and groans when Ryan pulls out of the garage, refusing to look at the sun. He hears shuffling and feels cold plastic nudge his temple. Gavin squints and looks over at the offending item, finding a cheap plastic-rimmed pair of sunglasses.

“They don’t cost six thousand dollars, but they do the job,” Ryan explains.

Gavin takes them begrudgingly and slides them onto his face. He doesn’t like how they sit on his nose and he keeps readjusting them awkwardly. He wishes he had kept his gold on rather than taking it off as soon as it became uncomfortable during the night, weighing down around his neck and fingers, slowing his typing speed.

Ryan glances over at him and chuckles, “You look like a whole new person.” Gavin frowns and looks down at himself; comfortable sneakers, a pair of cargo shorts, neon blue sunglasses, and a purple t-shirt. Gavin has to admit, he feels like a normal person – like an innocent civilian – rather than a wanted criminal.

He doesn’t complain, simply blames coincidence and lies saying it’ll help him blend in more.

“What would you like?” Gavin questions as they approach a coffee shop, only to pull around the corner, out of sight, due to a lack of parking.

“Eh, black coffee, one sugar.”

Gavin pulls a face but nods anyways and opens the passenger door. He pauses and pats himself down before leaning back into the car. Ryan’s already got a ten-dollar note in hand and he shoves it under Gavin’s nose. The man smiles and takes it, saying, “I guess I left my wallet in my other pants, huh?”

“Uh huh, get going already.” Gavin shuts the car door and walks down the street, shoving the money into his pocket.

He notices that people don’t look at him as often as usual, how they only sometimes glance at him and then quickly look away. Typically, if he were to walk down a street, laden with gold chains and his flawless aviators, people would make way for him and stare openly, wondering if he’s famous or infamous. As of right now, the people around him are treating him like they would treat any other regular man walking down the road, brushing past him or occasionally bumping shoulders accidentally.

The bell overhead rings when he enters the café, chatter filling the air as the sound of cars outside is cut off with the shut of a door. Gavin waits patiently in line, glancing around to pass time. It lasts for all of one minute before he pulls out his phone and starts checking his social feeds, automatically stepping forward whenever someone finishes ordering.

He finally reaches the counter and the woman behind it greets him politely, “Good morning, how are you today?”

“Eh,” Gavin responds truthfully, pocketing his phone, “Alright? Stayed up all night, need something to keep me going. How’re you today, love?”

The woman blinks at him in surprise, obviously not expecting the question, and takes a few seconds to come up with a response. “Uh, pretty good actually. I’m glad to be working.”

“New job?” Gavin glances over a shoulder and notices no one’s standing behind him, so he figures he might as well at least talk to the girl some more.

“More like just got back from a long break. It’s a relief to be able to do something useful. What were you up all night for?”

Gavin’s at least thankful he’s previously thought of a cover-up story if a civilian asked about his work or anything. “Ah, I’m an apprentice programmer. I lost track of time and when I checked it was seven in the bloody morning! I had to drag one of my roommates with me to grab coffee, he’s waiting in the car still.”

“Oh, right, coffee,” the woman – Gavin glances down at her name tag, _‘Elyse’_ – seems to come to and focus on her job at hand. “What would you like?”

“Large black, one sugar, aaaaand,” Gavin squints at the menu nearby, tilting his head. “I have ten quid, what can I get with that?”

“Quid?” Elyse laughs a little, “I don’t think I can accept Quid, sorry.”

Gavin struggles to not face palm in public, instead shoving a hand into his pocket and pulling out the money. “Oh, bugger me, I mean dollars. See? And I dunno, are the mochaccinos any good?”

Elyse shrugs and taps out something on the cash register’s screen. “Well, we have a newbie on the machine, but I can probably switch with him since I make better drinks if you’d like?” Gavin glances over at the man behind the espresso machine, noting how his actions are delayed, last-second, like an afterthought, and the noises from the steam wand are less than pleasant. He turns back to the woman behind the register and grins brightly.

“You’d do that? That’d be top!”

Although slightly confused, Elyse nods and says the total is six dollars. Gavin passes her the ten dollar note and, as soon as his change is in hand, dumps the returned coins in the tips jar. Elyse smiles and takes the jar with her as she slides over to the espresso machine, hiding it under the counter for later. Her coworker seems to understand what’s happening and shuffles out of the way, allowing the woman to take his place and resume work. Gavin follows her and leans against the counter, not wanting to annoy her with conversation unless she initiates it.

“Nice shirt,” she says to Gavin as she prepares the hot drinks, nodding at his clothes. Gavin glances down like he almost forgot what he was wearing, smiling afterwards.

“Well, it’s not wrong.” Elyse’s lips quirk upwards at the corners. “How long since you moved to Los Santos?” Gavin questions, making Elyse raise an eyebrow and look at him over upturned cups. “Your accent, it’s not like all the others. Where you from?”

“Oh, Canada, I moved here a couple years back. What about you?”

Gavin shrugs and contemplates lying. Well, it’s not really going to change much; he’s just chatting with her for the hell of it and to pass time. The chances of them bumping into each other again is slim to nothing. “I moved here early five years ago from England. To, uh, study ICT.” Not entirely false, it’s a half-truth; he moved here to help with ICT-related business, but he already knew how to track and hack, and ended up joining the Fake AH Crew. While their B-Team does their major planning and research on heists, he handles smaller details within the crew outside of negotiations.

“Nice,” Elyse says with a nod, grabbing a takeaway cup and sliding it underneath the group handle. “No family here?”

“No, but I have my friends. They’re like family to me.”

Something akin to fondness comes to Elyse’s face, and Gavin certainly doesn’t miss the small smile to match it. “I feel you. I feel bad for leaving my family behind, but I’ve found really good friends here too.”

“Hey, stop copying my story before I even say it!” Gavin says with a giggle, startling Elyse. Upon realizing he wasn’t actually annoyed, she laughs as well and pours the milk into one of the cups and hot water into the other. With a smile, he accepts the drinks when they’re passed to him. “Thanks heaps, it was nice talking to you, Elyse.”

“No problem, there’s a special something in your mocha too, I thought you might like it.” Gavin resists the urge to pull the lid off his drink to try and find what the surprise is. “What’s your name?”

“Oh, uh,” To lie or not to lie? Well, it's not likely they’re not going to see each other again, so why not? “Gavin.”

“Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Gavin.”

“You too, Elyse.” Elyse beams at him and Gavin picks up the two drinks. “Have a good day.”

“You too,” she replies. Gavin raises one of his full hands in a salute before leaving.

He takes a sip of his drink and finds something sweeter in it. He can’t see through the small hole in the top of it, but he thinks he knows what the special ‘something’ is. It’s a quick walk back to the Zentorno and Ryan reaches out for the untouched cup automatically. Gavin seats himself down in his seat and passes the cup to Ryan, freeing up a hand to close the car door.

“You look happy,” Ryan musses, pushing his mask up halfway to sip at his coffee, grateful for tinted windows.

“Well, yeah, the barista was nice,” Gavin explains, pulling the lid off his drink. A smile comes to his face and he shows the drink to Ryan. “Look, she gave me a marshmallow!”

“Oh, was she cute?” Ryan doesn’t bother with the indicator, waiting for Gavin to reseal his drink before taking off down the road.

“Well, yeah, I should’ve told her that.” Gavin shrugs. “Oh well, I’m sure someone else will tell her.”

Ryan smirks and side-eyes Gavin, “You crushing on her?”

Gavin splutters and chokes on his hot drink whilst Ryan laughs.

* * *

When Gavin next visits that café, he’s in his usual outfit and it’s starting to get closer to close-up time, so he’s not sure if Elyse is going to be working. The people around him part like a river around a rock and dare not touch him. Two of the five people in the line depart as soon as they spot Gavin standing behind them, waiting on his phone. Then Gavin spots Elyse at the register and slips his right hand into his pocket to hide the expensive rings on his fingers. He’s grateful his sleeves are long enough to cover his (stolen) watch as he pushes his sunglasses atop his head.

When Elyse spots him, she does a double take and quirks an eyebrow, almost failing to recognise him. “Wow, special occasion?”

“Uh, yeah, Boss’ birthday party, we’re all getting dressed up.” It’s a total lie. Elyse pauses and nods slowly at the explanation, like she doesn’t quite believe him but she’s not questioning it.

“Nice, are those designer?” she asks, pointing at the sunglasses pushing his hair back.

Gavin shakes his head and laughs, “I _wish_. A, uh, friend I know is bloody brilliant at metalwork, I wear his stuff so he feels good about himself.” Elyse nods and eyes the necklace around his neck. She doesn’t ask anything else, probably assuming it’s fake gold and not legit, much to Gavin’s relief.

“Oh!” Elyse’s expression quickly shifts and she gives him a sheepish smile, “Did you like the surprise? I didn’t know if it was okay or not, sorry if it ruined your mocha.”

“No, I loved it,” Gavin quickly replies, positively beaming.

Elyse’s shoulders sag and she barks out a laugh, “Thank god, I was really worried you’d hate me for it.”

“Wot? No! I really liked it, thank you, love.” She nods gratefully and asks what he’d like to drink. “Oh, mocha please, same as last time, it tasted great! Though my friends absolutely hated me afterwards because of the caffeine in it.” Elyse taps something into the register and says the total. Gavin hands over another ten dollar note – he had specifically gotten it out of his bank account for this purpose – and puts his change into the tip jar again.

“You don’t _have_ to do that every time,” Elyse says, glancing around the café. It’s relatively quiet today, only two people sitting in the far corner at a booth, so she mans the espresso machine and leaves whoever else is working out back.

“Well, I want to,” Gavin reasons, shrugging. When she’s not paying attention, Gavin slips out a hundred note and sneaks it into the jar without Elyse noticing. “How often do you work?”

Elyse looks at him in surprise as Gavin trails after her and stands on the opposite side of the counter, leaning on it's surface with his elbow. “Ah, every weekday. It’s just a temporary job, I just need the… the _experience_ is all.” Gavin nods in understanding. He spots a couple short, light hairs sticking to her clothes and can’t help but point at them.

“Dog or cat?”

After glancing down to see what he was pointing at, Elyse’s eyes go soft. “Probably dog, my big golden puppy called Benson. He’s the sweetest thing.”

“If I could I’d have a cat, but I don’t know if my roommates would let me. Our place is packed as it is.”

“Yeah? How many friends do you have living with you? I bet I can top it.”

“Eight.”

Elyse laughs, “Wow, that’s a lot, the same number as me! I’ve got eight guys living together with me. I’m the only girl in the whole c- place.” Gavin doesn’t question why she has to correct herself. Who knows, maybe it’s just like the small lisp she has; it’s something she can’t quite help. She begins heating the milk and Gavin watches with mild curiosity and fascination.

“We have three girls, but one’s like the mum of the group, she’s great, don’t know how she manages to put up with the lot of us.” He shrugs, watching as Elyse pours what he can only assume is chocolate syrup into a cup and tips the milk on top. “Oh, uh, can I? I don’t know, but, can I maybe-”

“You want another marshmallow?” Elyse finishes. Gavin nods and Elyse crouches down to pull out a container from the cabinet below. She puts one in and Gavin grins. “There. If your friends are annoyed at you for being too caffeinated, don’t tell them it was me.” Elyse shakes some brown powder on top and then caps the drink before sliding it over to the other side of the counter.

Gavin picks it up and cradles the drink in his hands. “Cheers, really appreciate it.”

“No problem,” she says with a wave of her hand, “You look like you need it. Another late night?”

Gavin glances around the shop and, upon realizing no one was waiting to place an order, begins talking. “Yeah, we’re, uh, struggling to file some information currently. Someone keeps giving false info and there’s a few bugs in the coding that doesn’t recognise the error.”

What was _actually_ happening was they discovered their ammunition supplies had been stolen from by a rival gang and had to delay their delivery. Still, Geoff had been pissed off and was trying to call in another friend for a favour; he was getting annoyed at being tricked by their competition for the umpteenth time. That also left Gavin with the task of trying to find out how the other crew had discovered who their supplier was and where he was hiding. Of course this meant he had to run through a long list of ex-partners and even sniff through their B-Team, just in case they let something slip without realizing.

“Oh, that sounds bad,” Elyse says with a grimace. “I don’t know shit about coding or, like, HTML or whatever-”

“-we mainly use Pascal and FORTRAN-”

“-but I know that false info has screwed me over in the past. Many times before.”

Gavin quirks an eyebrow. “Yeah? What happened?” He takes a sip from his drink and smiles at the sweetness in it.

“Well, an accident happened.” Having said that, Elyse rolls up her right arm and reveals a dot of scarred skin. Gavin coughs a little and peers closer, frowning. “It’s okay, all healed now.” That’s not what he was frowning about; that’s a bullet wound, he _knows_ what a bullet wound looks like. Well, he shouldn’t really be surprised; Los Santos is swarming with criminals and there’s an unlimited number of guns in the city.

“Ouch, still, it must have hurt, right?”

Elyse shrugs and nods. “Nothing I couldn’t handle.”

Gavin laughs then holds his left hand up, revealing the thin line of lighter skin running across his palm. “I once tried to grab a knife by the blade.” Not a lie; he’d had a knife thrown at him and he tried to block it. Well, he managed to stop it from hitting him in the head, but he then had to deal with a massive gash across his hand.

Elyse winces sympathetically and sucks in air between her teeth. “Ouch, maybe don’t do that?”

“You’d think it’d be that easy but I cock up a lot. It’s a daily challenge to not accidentally hurt myself like a barmy loon.”

“Oh yeah? What’d you do today?” A quieter laugh leaves him and he turns his head to the side. He points a finger at his cheek and Elyse’s eyes zone in on the small red cut. “Huh, what’s that from?”

“Well, I stole one of my friend’s hair ties and put it over my knee. It didn’t want to stay there so it sorta slingshot itself right at my face and the metal part hit me pretty hard. My friends wouldn’t stop laughing, even when I had to put a band-aid on it.” Elyse stares at him for a second longer before she cracks up laughing. Gavin mock-pouts, “Hey, it really hurt!”

She holds a hand up to her face, like she’s trying to physically wipe the smile from her mouth. “Yeah? It’s okay to cry. Do you want your pacifier?” If he had feathers, they would be thoroughly ruffled. Elyse simply giggles at him, her attention snapping to the door when the bell rings, a new customer stepping inside. “Ah, hey, Gav, I’ll see you another time, yeah?”

“Yeah, of course. Have a good day!” Gavin leans away from the counter and gives her a small wave. Elyse grins and flicks her fingers in return.

“You too.”

* * *

Unsurprisingly, there are no tutorials on how to _‘dress normally’_ online.

So when Jack and Ray are forced to go purchase clothes outside of a hoodie and a vacationers t-shirt, and Geoff shoves Gavin on them and tells them to scram, he’s a little more willing than he’s been in the past.

And that leads to Gavin wandering around Binco awkwardly, poking at the cheap price tags and occasionally glancing over at Jack and Ray as the two try and pick out something to wear. He’s supposed to be helping them pick something, seeing as he’s got a bit more fashion sense than they do, but he spots a shirt with stupid words printed on its front and he makes a beeline towards it.

He holds up the red shirt and lets out a short bark of laughter, thankfully quiet enough to not call on the attention of the woman waiting at the cash register. Gavin folds it up and glances around at the clothes beside him. While Ray picks up a grey hoodie only for Jack to sigh and roll her eyes at him, Gavin snags hold of another t-shirt which had grabbed his attention.

 _‘Front flip for style’_ certainly seems like a thing he’d say, considering how many times he’s tried – and failed – to do a front flip on his motorcycle. He picks up a third and fourth shirt, each with dumb slogans and quotes on the front, and makes his way to the cashier. She smiles at him when he approaches, but her eyes look dead. Her actions and words are mechanical as she scans the items and asks him how his day’s been.

He pays and takes the bag from her, giving her a bland smile before turning to check on Ray and Jack.

“So?” Jack asks, holding up two shirts, one a dark blue colour and the other a purple. “Which one?”

“Purple, by far,” Gavin advises, surprising the two into turning around to look at him. “And you,” he points at Ray and his selection of one grey hoodie and a singular black top, “More clothes, now.”

“Gavin?” He looks back at Jack, humming questioningly. She’s staring down at the bag in his hand curiously. “Did you just buy something for yourself from Binco?”

Shit.

“No, it’s not for me,” he quickly responds, thank god for quick-thinking. Ray squints at him dubiously.

Jack puts the blue shirt down and tucks the purple over her arm. “Let’s just finish up here so we can get going.”

Gavin nods in agreement and trails after the two quietly.

As soon as he gets home, he hides the clothes at the back of his dresser, worried someone else would question his change in fashion.

* * *

When Elyse spots the writing on Gavin’s shirt at six in the morning, her sleepiness oozes away and she hides her laughter behind a hand. Gavin glances down at himself and holds his hands up, asking her what the problem was. He obviously knew what the problem was. Elyse snorts a couple more times before clearing her throat and getting her giggles under control.

“No, I will not touch your awesome button.”

“Aw,” Gavin deflates and pouts at her, “No fun.”

“Too bad.” Rather than continuing being fake-upset, Gavin brightens up and opens his mouth to order, only for Elyse to cut him off. “Let me guess, a mocha with a marshmallow?” Upon receiving confirmation, she plugs in the order to the cash register. “Any reason why you’re up so early? Did you sleep at all last night?”

A short laugh slips out of him and Gavin nods. “Yep, I went to bed at nine last night. I have work early today is all, but I have a good hour or so before I need to get into gear.” He’s surprising himself with how much he’s managed to not lie to Elyse, simply to warp the truth in his favour. Geoff had called in the crew yesterday saying they were going to hit a jewellery store, the exact same one FakeHaus was going to be hitting at lunchtime. It was the best kind of _‘fuck you’_ Geoff could think of after consuming at least ten standard drinks within two hours.

“Oh, did you sort out the issue with the false information problem?” Something swells inside of Gavin's chest and he grins; she remembered what he’d spoken about, she was actually paying attention to what he said, not ignoring his words like he was yet another mindless chatterbox customer.

“Yeah, we’re planning on dishing out punishment for the person’s mistakes.” When he’s given change, he dumps the coins into the tip jar before silently sliding in a couple notes, making sure Elyse isn’t paying attention as he does so.

She hums when she tamps the coffee grinds before looking up at Gavin and saying, “Hey, you know what happened yesterday?” He makes a questioning noise. “I found a hundred dollar note in my tip jar. A hundred dollars! Some rich guy must have come in and slipped it into there when I wasn’t paying attention.”

“Yeah?” Gavin says, looking out the shop’s windows so he wouldn’t give anything away with his eyes, “That must have been a surprise!”

“Sure was. Ja- Jimmy said it was because of my looks.”

“What does he do?”

“Ah, he’s, uh, sanitation engineer?”

Gavin has no idea what a sanitation engineer is, but it sounds fancy. “Oh, that’s cool.” Elyse’s shoulders drop into a more relaxed position and she continues making Gavin’s mocha. “Do you not usually get customers this early?” he ends up asking, glancing around the empty café.

Elyse nods, wiping down the bench as she sets two ceramic cups underneath a double group handle, much to Gavin’s surprise. “Not until seven usually. You’re the first customer today.”

“Aw, I’m special.” Elyse nods and Gavin watches curiously as she heats the milk. “How’d you learn to make coffee?”

“Well, a friend of mine owns the place, and I asked him to teach me so I could earn money and get experience.” Gavin nods and watches Elyse in confusion as she picks up the two finished mochas. He’s about to ask her what she’s doing when she comes around the side of the counter and makes her way over to one of the tables, setting the drinks down on opposite sides. He trails after her, seeming to get the hint and taking a seat on the left.

Gavin grins when he spots the pair of marshmallows sitting on his saucer, putting one in his drink and the other in his mouth. “Won’t your boss get minged about you slacking?” he asks, pointing at the unmanned cash register.

Elyse jab her thumb at the empty street outside. “Do you see any customers waiting to get their coffee? I wanted to talk to you anyways, we don’t talk much outside of you ordering your mocha. And I leave early for lunch today anyways.” She’s got him there. “So, what’re your friends like?” Gavin chokes on his mocha, making Elyse snort and pass him a napkin to wipe up the drink from the table where he’s splattered a couple drops.

“Well, they’re really fun to hang out with?” Quick, he needs to come up with nicknames, code names, something! “Uh, Jenny’s one of the girls living with us, she’s usually really sweet but she’ll quickly put you in your place if you piss her off too much. Then you have… Randy, who’s like, half-scary half-dad. He’ll tell you to go to bed early and is probably the first to be there if you’re in trouble but he also comes up with the creepiest of ideas and his evil laugh is terrifying.”

“He sounds interesting, way more interesting than my friends.”

“I bet you they’re great.” Elyse rolls her eyes and a fond expression comes to her face as she nods. Gavin grins and continues talking. “You also have, bloody- Roy? He does his own thing most of the time, loves his DS, but he’s great once he’s out of his shell and enjoying himself. Shit, and I can’t forget about George. He’s the brother-friend, will make fun of you a lot but when it comes down to it, only _he_ is allowed to mess with you.”

Geoff will undoubtedly kill him if he finds out Gavin’s calling him _George_.

Elyse perks up with a flash of teeth and a smile in her eyes. “Yeah, I know someone like that.”

“They’re the best, huh?” A nod of agreement. “Then there’s my best friend Mmmmmark. Mark’s always an extreme. Like, he spits it at games he doesn’t like and shouts really loudly, but he also cried at his own wedding. His wife’s the other girl living with us, Lily. When I fell down the stairs once, Mark laughed himself hoarse and he couldn’t talk for two days. He avoided me the whole time and would- what’s it called? Flip me off? Flick me off? Flick the bean?”

“One of those, I don't know.”

“He would give me the finger whenever he saw me because he couldn’t curse me out.”

“Oh, I can top that!” Elyse perks up, placing down her half-finished mocha. “Jimmy tried to get me to kiss him on the cheek whilst we were all out at the beach. I told him to close his eyes and got my friend to do it instead. He wouldn’t kiss me for a week.”

Gavin makes a show of looking distraught, leaning backwards in his seat so the front legs come up from the floor. “That’s so mean! You’re mean!” Elyse simply laughs heartily, eyes crinkling around the edges. Gavin ends up grinning in return, picking up a stick and stirring it through his drink. His phone vibrates and he checks to see who it is. Meg’s name lights up and he reads over her text.

 **Meg <3**  
**_‘What are you doing right now?’_ **

He taps away a reply with one hand whilst Elyse is trying to calm down and breathe properly between her laughs.

 **Gav**  
**_‘Out for coffee. Why? Geoff need me?’_ **

He angles his phone away so Elyse can’t see his messages. Eventually, when Elyse crumbles down to a few giggles, she encourages him to tell her about his last friend. “Yeah, that’d be- eff word- James.”

“James?” Elyse startles a little. Gavin’s eyebrows dip in concern and he nods. Shit, did she recognise James as Ryan’s first name? Entirely different person, but still. “James who?”

Buzz.

 **Meg <3** **_  
_ ** **_‘No reason. Have fun!’_ **

“Uhm, Little. James Little.” Upon registering his words, she sags down in her seat in relief and lets out a sigh. If Jeremy ever finds out, he’s gonna murder Gavin. “Why? Do you know a James?”

“Uhm, yes, from a long time ago, haha.”

“So, what’re your friends like?” Elyse runs her fingers along the outside of her drink, looking pensive. Gavin leans to the side to try to catch her eyes. “You don’t gotta tell me, I was just curious.”

Elyse shrugs and holds her drink up, elbows on the table. “They’re not really interesting,” she reasons, “You’ve got Jimmy, he's the 'funny' one and I swear his favourite pastime is annoying the others, especially Aaaadrian. It took me two weeks to tell Adrian and, and Brian apart. Larry’s probably smarter than most of the others but his love of anime brings him down.” Gavin cracks up laughing.

“Roy loves the old Japanese cartoons, like the nancy-boy in the mask with the roses and top hat and cape. Can’t remember the name of it.”

“I’ll have to ask La- Lar about it,” Elyse says with a shrug. “Other than those four, you’ve got John. He’s expressive, he usually instigates the mucking around. Honestly? All of them are literal children, I don’t know how I put up with them.”

“Maybe because you’re a child yourself,” Gavin mumbles, but Elyse hears him anyways. Her expression drops quickly and her mouth closes as she stares at him, unimpressed, causing Gavin to laugh. “Sorry, sorry, I had to!”

Elyse's lips twitch upwards at the corners and she rolls her eyes. “Suuuure, you had to.” Either way, she’s smiling and she continues explaining. “You’ve also got Max, uhhh, Oliver, and Shhhhhhsssssimon. Simon’s a little like you, I guess, only less British- and less of a jerk. Accident prone.”

“Hey, I had to, okay? You set that up yourself!” And, because he’s definitely a mature adult, Gavin sticks his tongue out at her. Elyse snorts, her eyes showing nothing but fondness.

“I’m surrounded by children. Benson is my only reprieve.”

That catches his attention, “Oh, yeah, Benson. I would love to meet him!” Elyse presses her lips into a thin line, like she’s weighing the pros and cons. “C’mon, I love animals, I just wanna pet him a little? We could meet at the park maybe?”

Elyse opens her mouth to respond, but before she can get a single word out, the door opens and the bell above it chimes. They both turn to look at the new arrival, a stout man with red cheeks. He walks up to the counter, frowning when he sees no one behind it, and turns to look at the two of them. His eyes zone in on Elyse – what with her hair tied up in a bun and the telltale black apron – and he scowls.

“Are you working or slacking off?” the man huffs out. While Gavin frowns at his rudeness, Elyse quickly stands up and takes their empty cups.

“Sorry, sir, I wasn’t expecting anyone so early,” she apologises, sliding around the back of the counter. The man scoffs and casts Gavin a mildly disgusted look before ordering himself a drink. Whilst he’s waiting, Gavin walks up to the counter and smiles.

“Hey, I’ll see you another time?”

“Yeah, I’ll get back to you on the Benson thing.”

Gavin spins on his heels and makes to leave, calling out over a shoulder, “Have a good day, love!”

And, just like the other two times, Elyse says, “You too!”

* * *

“You’re late,” Geoff says in greeting. Gavin merely shrugs and pulls his mask over his face to hide his smile. “Okay, we’ve got a half hour window before FakeHaus arrives. Ray, Jeremy, keep our exits clear. Jack, escape vehicle ready?”

“Geoff, you didn’t think this through well, did you?” Jack asks through their earpiece.

Geoff frowns, “What do you mean? I thought this out perfectly! Ray and Jeremy are positioned outside to keep a heads up and make sure police doesn’t get in our way, and you land the chopper when we finish robbing the place. We then take off while Ray and Jeremy get away on Jeremy’s motorbike and meet up at Chiliad. What could the problem _possibly_ be?”

“How about we don’t have enough space for me, you, Ryan, Gavin, and Michael? This is a four seater!”

“God dammit!” Michael seethes from beside Gavin, glancing around the corner of the building at the street. He can see the jewellery store across the road, and Gavin’s itching to get closer, feeling the familiar weight of his pistol in hand and the trigger against his finger. “Are we pulling out? Who knows when we’ll get another chance like this!”

“We’re doing it,” Geoff assures, “No way are we chickening out now. Who’s planning on staying behind?”

“Gavin.”

Gavin's head perks up at the mentioning of his name, snapping around to look at Michael who had spoken. “Aw, wot?”

“You _always_ distract Jack while she’s flying! I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel like dying today.” Jack nods in agreement and Gavin looks to Geoff for some kind of backup. Geoff’s not giving any. If anything, he concurs with the other two. Not even Ryan looks at him from behind his mask, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter.

“So it’s settled?”

“Screw you all,” Gavin huffs, looking back at the jewellery store. He’ll have to find another way home. Oh, right, he’ll probably stand out in his current outfit. He leans back and looks at the building above him. “Hey, Ray!”

A head pokes out from the top, “Yo?”

“Throw me your jacket so I can disguise myself when I head home.” It takes a couple seconds, but eventually Gavin finds a purple hoodie in his hands and Ray telling him not to get blood on it. “No guarantees.”

“Fuck it, I changed my mind, throw it back up.”

“Okay, we’re going in!” Geoff announces, surprising the rest of the group as he darts out from the cover of the building. Ray disappears back over to his sniper rifle and gets into place, whilst Ryan loads his submachine gun. Gavin smiles and sticks close behind Michael and Geoff, the two taking the lead and rushing across the street. The cars in the distance slow down to a stop, some even reversing or turning in the opposite direction to escape the ensuing robbery.

Michael shoulders his way into the building first, startling the workers and customers as he does so. Gavin leaves the hoodie just outside the store. Geoff’s got his gun trained on the woman closest to the alarm button, eyes cold and arm steady as he approaches.

“Don’t. Move.” The woman’s eyes flicker towards the red button, only for Geoff to let off a single bullet at the wall by her head. She whimpers when she glances over a shoulder and spots the hole just a whisker to her left. Gavin makes his way towards the nearest case, shooting at the glass and shattering it. Michael gets to work collecting the rest of the expensive items, Ryan aiming his weapon at the terrified civilians who cower on the floor, hands behind their heads. Geoff orders the worker to open the cash register and to place all the money within a disposable bag, which she does without hesitance. She moves quicker when Geoff lets off another round.

Gavin, meanwhile, shoves as many earrings, bracelets, and necklaces into his pockets as he can manage.

He comes across a silver chain bracelet, a simple little thing, and he puts it in his top pocket along with a set of earrings and a necklace. The rest goes into his pants pocket.

“Let’s go! Let’s go!” Geoff shouts once he’s gotten most if not all he could get. Michael quickly hurries towards the entrance, Ryan backing up and never letting the civilians out of his sight. Geoff snags Gavin by the elbow and drags him out into the street, the rush of helicopter blades getting louder, wind blasting down on them as Jack descends. “Are you sure you’ll be alright?” he asks into Gavin’s ear, barely audible over the noise around them.

Gavin nods with certainty, “I’ll be fine. I won’t get to Chiliad in time but I’ll be at the penthouse by nightfall so no cheeky bastard cops tail me.” Geoff, although with a concerned crease in his brow, nods and turns away just as the helicopter lands in the street. Ryan climbs in first, helping the others to follow, Geoff taking the rear. Gavin salutes them and grabs the hoodie from the ground before sneaking into an empty shop. Out of sight, Gavin pulls on the article of clothing and tugs the hood over his hair, removing his sunglasses and ensuring the stolen goods weren’t visibly bulging in his pockets. He tosses his mask into a bin nearby, burying it under some rubbish.

He waits a couple minutes after the chopper departs, hearing the vehicle fading into the distance and the sound of fear outside dies down. Gavin sighs in relief and exits the shop without anyone paying him much attention. Smiling to himself, Gavin takes off down the street and tucks his hands into the hoodie’s pockets.

Then a certain familiar blonde rounds the corner and starts walking towards him. Although she has her hair tied up and a hat on, he knows exactly who that is. She looks around curiously at all the drama and fails to spot the man she’s walking towards; to notice the newly-robbed jewellery store just down the road; the place where FakeHaus is about to hit any second now.

And Gavin spots a familiar bright orange car zipping down the road behind Elyse.

“Oh, eff.”

He quickens his pace.

Elyse doesn’t even notice him coming.

It’s only when Gavin hooks his arm with the woman’s and drags her into a shop alcove that she reacts. “Hey, jerk!” She tugs herself free and Gavin thinks he sees Elyse’s hand curl into a fist a second before she looks up and recognises him. “Gavin?”

“You can’t go down there,” Gavin says, watching FakeHaus’ car approaching them, “A store just got robbed!”

“What?!” Gavin winces at her sheer volume, taking note of her panicked expression. “Who? What happened?”

“It was one of the crews, the one with the skull mask guy.”

“Fake AH Crew,” Elyse mumbles, frowning to herself. Gavin’s not surprised she could quickly pick out the name; they’re all over the news most of the time. “What else happened? Were any other crews involved?”

“Not that I know of.” Elyse pulls out her phone, quickly making a call. Gavin purses his lips and waits patiently as someone on the other end picks up.

“Yeah, Elyse here. Listen, I can’t get to work for a bit, there was a robbery at the jewellery store just now and I’m caught up in it. Can you take a different, uh, shift?” Gavin glances down the street, spotting the orange car as it comes to a sudden halt. “Uh, yes, a friend told mine. Not a work friend. He’s not lying.” The vehicle turns around and drives off in the opposite direction. “ _ **Shut** the  fuck up._ Yeah, I know. Just- just gimme, like, half an hour or an hour. Yep, cya.” She hangs up and looks at Gavin. “Thanks for telling me, who knows what could have happened.

Gavin’s just relieved that FakeHaus seems to have called off their attempted heist; no doubt they’re going to be pissed at the Fakes for foiling their plans.

He looks back at Elyse and grins. “Yeah, hey, no problem. Uh, were you on your way to somewhere?”

“Nah,” she says with a wave of her hand, “Just wandering around and sightseeing. Still not used to the place.”

“Yeah, it takes some time to fit in. Don’t think I’m quite there yet.” Gavin shrugs, trying to sound nonchalant about it. “Do you… want to go somewhere else? I don’t think the shop owner much appreciates me blocking up their entrance.” They both look through the glass door to see a disgruntled old woman glowering at them. Elyse presses her lips into a line, like she’s trying not to laugh, and nods in agreement.

“Yeah, sure. I walked past a park on the way here, do you want to go back there?” Gavin nods quickly, agreeing without hesitation. They slip into the small crowd of people, walking away from the sound of police sirens as cruisers pull up to the jewellery store, a few minutes too late to stop the previous robbery. “What happened?”

“I was, uh, I was buying some jewellery for someone and then these guys just barge in out of nowhere with guns, telling us to get on the floor. They took all the necklaces and bracelets and everything!”

Elyse gasps, staring at him intently, “Who was there?”

“Well, the skull mask guy was there, and so was the man with the moustache.” Elyse nods as he talks, humming to herself in thought. “And there was also that guy with the wavy brown hair? I forget his name.”

“Mogar,” Elyse says. Gavin glances at her curiously and Elyse shrugs, “I watch the news a lot, he’s behind a lot of arson and explosions across the city. Was that all of them? There wasn’t a guy in a mask? Not a skull mask, but a different mask?”

Bugger. She means him. She means _Vav_.

“Oh, yeah, he was there too. He didn’t talk much, so I didn’t notice uh, whatsisname.”

Elyse nods and says, “Vav. How’d they all escape?”

“A bloody helicopter!” Gavin points up to the sky. “It landed in the street and they all jumped in and took off!”

“Any idea which way?”

Gavin shrugs and scuffs his foot on the ground, “I was busy trying to get away, maybe they went west? I don’t know.” Elyse just nods and points to the park, crossing the road to get to it. “So,” Gavin starts, weaving around a couple holding hands, “How’ve you been?”

“I’ve been better, things haven’t been too great for my friends so that really gets me down.”

“Aw, well, hey, I’m here to cheer you up.” Gavin smiles and Elyse glances at him, a small curve on her lips.

“Uh huh, right.” She doesn’t even react when Gavin makes an offended noise. They meander along the pathway between the grass and trees, hearing kids squealing in the distance, getting closer and closer. Gavin feels something sharp poke at his chest and sucks in a breath. Elyse glances at him, quirking an off-centre eyebrow. “What’s up?”

“Uh, remember when I said I was going to the jewellery store to get something?” She nods slowly, head tilting curiously and encouraging him to elaborate. Gavin sticks a hand down the top of Ray’s hoodie, into his breast pocket. “It was for you, I just thought you might like it is all.”

He certainly doesn’t miss the way her eyes light up and Gavin wriggles the chains between his fingers, making sure the necklace and earrings weren’t attached before pulling the bracelet out. He holds it out to her delicately. “…oh wow…” Elyse speaks so quietly Gavin almost doesn’t hear it as they come to a stop on the pavement. He holds the silver bracelet out to her and Elyse politely offers her wrist, allowing Gavin to lock the chain together. She pulls it up to eye level and looks it over, turning her arm around. “Wow, you didn’t have to do this.”

“Well, yeah, but I wanted to.” Plus it was basic enough that Elyse won’t get called out for wearing stolen jewellery; it’s nigh unnoticeable.

She lifts her head up to grin at him, teeth and all. “Thank you.”

“No problem.”

Gavin idly wonders how close he had come to Elyse walking past the jewellery store and recognizing his voice. He quickly pushes those thoughts away in favour of leading Elyse further into the park at a quickened pace.

“What’re you doing?” she questions the moment Gavin sits down in one of the swings.

“What does it look like?”

“Like you’re reenacting your childhood?” Elyse offers, walking over to lean against the metal beam of the swing set.

Gavin chortles, “Spot on,” and then starts to swing back and forth. Elyse watches with an expression that reads half amused half _‘god-dammit-Gavin’_ , something he’s become used to seeing on people’s faces when in his company. “Aren’t you going to join me?”

“Why?” she asks with a tilt of her head, glancing at the empty swing beside him.

“Why not?”

Elyse opens her mouth to respond, only for it to fall shut again a moment later. She shrugs and slips past him, “You’ve got a point.” When Elyse sits down in the swing beside him, Gavin grins triumphantly and leans backwards with his arms hanging limply. Until his knuckles graze against the ground and he hisses, pulling his hands backwards with a whine. Elyse notices, swinging gently beside him as she asks, “What happened?”

“Hurt myself,” Gavin explains, holding up his reddened knuckles.

Elyse lasts all of two seconds before bursting into laughter. “Wow, you really weren’t kidding when you said you hurt yourself daily, were you?” Even as Gavin pouts at her and cradles his hurt hand to his chest, Elyse giggles and tucks her legs up, winding her arms around the chain. “You’re almost as ridiculous as my friends.”

“Almost? I should try harder then.” Elyse’s face snaps over to him with her eyes wide, but her lips look like she’s trying to stop herself from smiling and slowly losing the battle. Gavin snickers, “I kid, I don’t even _know_ them. For all I care, they could criminals!” Idiot! Gavin berates himself internally but doesn’t show anything on the outside.

“Haha, yeah, funny.” Elyse turns away and resumes swinging, ignoring the looks of parents as they walk by with children in their strollers or toddling behind them eagerly. Gavin worries he might have stepped over a line, but then Elyse looks back at him curiously and asks, “Can you swing all the way around the bars?”

“It’s not scientifically possible, but I’ll give it a go!”

After two banged up knees, a grazed elbow, and a bitten tongue, they leave on good terms; a smile, a wave, and a promise of seeing each other some time in the future. Gavin has to figure out how he’s going to spend the next six or seven hours before he can safely return to the penthouse and help the crew pawn off the stolen goods.

* * *

“Get away from me, you leech,” Jeremy huffs lightheartedly, pushing at Gavin. Undeterred, Gavin slides back over to the short man and wraps his arms around him, chin on the top of his head.

“Aw, but it’s _cold_ , Lil J.” Gavin lets slip a whine to further get his point across. Michael rolls his eyes and steps closer, giving Gavin a small shove at the shoulder.

“Back up, asshole. We’re here on a job, not to dick around.” Gavin pulls a face and playfully leers at him before backing up with a sheepish grin.

“I really _am_ cold though.”

“Maybe you should have bought yourself a hoodie then,” Michael retorts, purposely pulling his leather jacket further over his front. Gavin continuously pulls faces and tries to squeeze himself between the two, eventually causing the trio to end up closer to the mouth of the alleyway than anticipated. After the third time Gavin steps on his shoes, Michael shoves him backward and starts taking off his jacket. “Fine! You better give it back though. Undamaged!” He all but lobs the jacket at Gavin, causing the man’s sunglasses to shift on his face and a squawk of surprise to leave him. Jeremy laughs and Gavin removes his aviators before pulling the jacket on. Michael folds his arms across his chest and hunches over to keep warm, keeping Jeremy between him and a smug-looking Gavin.

“Aw, Michael, thank you, my boi.”

“You touch me and I can’t guarantee your safety.”

“You look so weird in a jacket,” Jeremy remarks, tilting his head at Gavin.

The Brit perks up, a smile crossing his features, “Oh yeah? How about…” Before Jeremy can react, Gavin snatches hold of his cowboy hat and puts it onto his own head.

“Hey, no, give it back!” Jeremy jumps to try and grab the hat back, but his lack-of-height only serves to make it an impossible feat, especially when Gavin keeps one arm between himself and the shorter man. Michael snickers behind them, only to fall short when someone new clears their throat.

“You’re the Fake AH Crew?” the man asks.

Gavin straightens himself automatically, stepping towards the man with a smile on his face. The only reason Gavin didn’t bother with his mask when meeting up with the supplier is because so far he’s been trustworthy. “That’ll be us. Have you brought what we asked for?” Gavin questions, eyeing the stranger’s bag curiously. The man places the duffel on the ground and unzips it, revealing a large number of magazines and other assorted ammunition within. Michael steps forward to grab the bag, pulling it away from the supplier to inspect.

He freezes halfway through, head turning to the side and glowering at the mouth of the alleyway. “The fuck you looking at, bitch?”

Gavin follows his line of sight, spotting a woman standing at the end of the alleyway.

Something catches in his throat and he registers the woman’s face. Although he barely gets a glimpse of her before she hurries along down the street, Gavin _knows_ that’s Elyse, that can’t be anyone else _but_ Elyse. Michael mutters something about civilians under his breath and continues inspecting the ammunition.

“It’s all good,” Michael finally says, standing up and passing the bag to Jeremy.

“Wot?” Gavin questions, looking at Michael. The man frowns and points at the bag.

“The ammunition, it’s legit.”

“Where’s my payment?” the stranger asks, holding a hand out impatiently.

“Oh, right, yeah, uhm,” Gavin sticks a hand into his back pants pocket and withdraws a wad of cash, passing it to the man. “There you go, twenty grand.” He all but snatches it from Gavin, causing him to purse his lips but force a smile.

After running a finger over the paper, the man gives him a grin, “A pleasure doing business.”

“Yeah, you too.”

Although he gives Gavin a curious look, the stranger spins on his heels and walks away from them, to the far end of the alleyway. Michael waits until the man rounds the alleyway entrance before turning to Gavin and leaning into his space, “What was that? You lost it halfway through!”

“I, uh, no I didn’t,” Gavin fumbles with his words for a second, “I just remembered I have to go see another person. A dealer, yeah. It’s something Geoff wanted me to do.” Jeremy and Michael exchange dubious looks as Gavin shrugs off Michael’s jacket and places Jeremy’s hat on the shorter man’s head. “I’ll catch you later. Don’t wait up on game night for me, I won’t be gone long.”

“Gavin-” He doesn’t wait for Jeremy to finish his sentence, already taking off at a quick jog. He pulls out his sunglasses and slides them onto his face, not caring if he looks like a douche wearing them this late at night.

When he leaves the alleyway, he can barely make out a figure walking in the distance down the street. Gavin takes off at a sprint, keeping his eyes peeled for any kind of shady figures nearby. He knows this isn’t a good neighbourhood, and he doesn’t want anything bad to happen to Elyse if she’s caught walking alone by herself at night. Looking over the top of his aviators, Gavin spots two men up ahead crossing the road to Elyse’s side. Maybe it’s bad to make assumptions, but he feels like this isn’t going to end well.

“Hey!” he calls out when he’s within earshot, causing Elyse to turn around and the two men to stop in their tracks. Gavin waves a hand over his head and, after a moment’s hesitation, Elyse’s face lights up and she returns the gesture, her silver bracelet catching the light of a nearby streetlamp and jingling.

“Gav! Hey!” He hurries over to her, not caring if he’s panting a little by the time they get close enough to talk properly. “What’re you doing here?” Gavin subtly glances over Elyse’s shoulder, spotting the two men quickly turn on their heels and take off in the other direction.

Smiling proudly to himself, Gavin pushes his sunglasses up to his head and straightens himself. “I was just hanging with my friends at a bar and went outside for fresh air. I saw you down the road and wanted to make sure you were okay; this isn’t really a good neighbourhood to be walking around in late at night.”

Elyse nods her head in agreement. “Yeah, I know, but I have to walk this way to get to my place. It’s really sweet of you to come make sure I’m okay.”

“Can I, uh, walk you home?”

“Uhm, uh,” Elyse fumbles with her hands before holding her left arm up, revealing the ring on her finger, “I have a husband, I don’t know how he’d react to seeing you with me.”

“Oh, jealous type?” Elyse takes a second to think of how to respond. She ends up nodding and shrugging. She pulls her shoulder bag up higher and pats a hand against it, like she’s checking for something inside. Gavin shrugs as well, “Yeah, don’t worry, just tell him I’m dating someone too.”

“Yeah?” Elyse turns on her heels and gestures for Gavin to follow her as she walks. He stays at her side, walking in sync with her footsteps. “What does she do?”

“Oh, well, uhm, she’s a… model.”

Elyse quickly backtracks and apologises, “I didn’t mean to pry.”

“No, she’s an actual model,” Gavin reiterates, “A damn good one too.” It’s only a partial lie, but it’s also not the whole truth. While Meg may work as a model and allow herself to be photographed, when she’s not in a studio she’s got a knife in hand and a gun strapped to her thigh. The world trembles at her feet when Meg’s given a new target.

“Wow, she’s an actual model? Photoshoots and everything?” Gavin smiles and nods proudly. “That’s way better than me working at a café as a barista. Let me guess, your friends are some… CEO-type high-up bank people?” Gavin cracks up laughing, a small squeak slipping out with it. He can’t _believe_ how _ridiculous_ that situation sounds; they  _rob_  banks for a living, not _work_  for them. Elyse smiles a little, albeit confusedly, “What? What’d I say?”

“Oh, no, nothing!” Gavin quickly recovers, patting at his chest. “It's just a little funny is all. Like, some of them don't have jobs, but R- Randy works as an IT guy like me.”

Elyse brightens up a little, “Computer nerds, huh?” She pulls out her phone and texts someone, Gavin doesn’t _mean_ to, but he sees a cute pet name at the top – who even calls someone  _‘Baby Boy’_ these days? – and the previous text;

**Meme Queen  
** **_‘L was right, definitely our friends, keep B posted’_ **

Followed by her current message;

 **Meme Queen** **  
** **_‘Might be a few minutes late, bumped into a friend on the way.’_ **

He doesn’t ask questions.

Gavin simply shrugs, “Well, yeah, computers, cameras, games. Electronics, really.”

“What kind of games?” she asks, swapping her bag to her other shoulder and replacing her phone inside. Gavin thinks he hears someone nearby but, when he glances to his right, can’t see anything.

“Mostly video games. Horror games scare me so I mostly like sand boxing and FPS games.”

“Me too!” Gavin’s head snaps back around to look at Elyse in surprise. “Video games, love them, all my friends and I play them when we’re not working.” Gavin grins and opens his mouth to reply when his phone goes off in his pocket. He pulls it out, noticing the message is from _‘Lil J’_ and he can see something along the lines of **_‘Megs back from work tomorrow, I hear…’_** “What’s up?” Elyse questions, peering at his phone. Instinctively, Gavin locks the screen and pockets it with a smile.

“Just my friend saying my girlfriend’s coming back,” he explains.

“Oh, Meg?” Gavin nods. “Well, I hope I can meet her one day.” A soft laugh escapes his throat, and Gavin wishes with everything he has that he can pull off fooling someone for once in his life. “But, you like videogames too, yeah? What’s your favourite game?”

“Oh, _Halo: Combat Evolved_ by a long shot,” he replies without thinking. “It’s just a hobby I have outside of work, but if I could I’d make a living out of videogames, I love ‘em.” Elyse pauses at the corner of a street, Gavin taking a step further before halting. “What’s wrong?”

“Uh, my husband is, hmm, he gets jealous about who I talk to? Not jealous but concerned. My house is just down the road, I’ll be safe to walk the rest of the way. But thank you for walking with me; it was nice to have company for once.”

Gavin’s face lights up and he shrugs with one shoulder, “Hey, not a problem. Do you always finish work late?”

“No, I had to help out a friend tonight is all. Do you always go to the bar with your friends?”

“Nah, we just had a little business to settle is all.” Gavin turns around to leave, only to come to a stop a few feet away and spin back around. “Hey, Elyse,” he calls, causing her to turn back and look at him, “What’s your last name? So I can find you online.”

“Wi-” She stutters and quickly corrects herself, much to Gavin’s surprise. “Whitmire. What about you?”

Shit, he didn’t think this far ahead. He barely has half a second to think of a last name, thinking through his friends, the less noticeable ones, childhood- “Gruchy.” Idiot. Gavin scolds himself afterwards, but Elyse simply nods and her lips twitch upwards at the corners.

“See you around, Gavin,” she says with a wave, continuing her way down the street. Gavin quickly hurries back towards Jeremy and Michael, wondering if they’ve left already or not.

Gavin barely spares a motorcycle a glance as it goes zipping past him with its two passengers a minute later. He swears he sees the second person watching him before they look forward again and fade into the darkness of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wheezes oh my god gavin im sorry but holy shit youre a fucking idiot


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I am _not_ cheating! I don’t even _like_ Elyse like that!”
> 
> Meg simply laughs, “Uh huh, sure. So, when’s the threesome?” Gavin chokes and Michael cracks up laughing. “Is she hot at least?”
> 
> “Meeeeeeg!” She simply smiles and pinches his cheek. Gavin tries to brush her off and she steps away, pulling her suitcase along with her. “You’re evil.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tfw you just wanna be friends with someone of the opposite gender but your crew keeps getting on your case and even your gf makes fun of you  
>  __ **Referring to someone as being “on a Pink Cloud” usually means that the person is out of touch with reality. Someone who is happy, regardless of what others say or do.**  
> 

_Testify to the strength of a true bomb,_  
_Flying high over the heads of a rude mob,_  
_Stay another revolution of the whole cloud,_  
_Kill them all with love._

* * *

He doesn’t end up looking her up, simply hits his head against the table repeatedly until Ray seems to take notice and wander over. He peers at the blank browser page and sips at his drink idly. After Gavin finally drops his head down and groans, falling still, Ray pauses his drinking to ask him what the problem is.

“I want to talk to this girl but I don’t knooooow,” he whines. Ray’s demeanour quickly changes and a smirk slips onto his face.

“Oh? A girl? Does Meg know?” Gavin shoots him a filthy look, but it quickly fades as he looks at the blank computer page uncertainly. Ray pokes his shoulder with a free hand, “Seriously, Gavin, does Meg know?”

“No, it’s nothing like that, she’s just a nice person who I like to talk to.”

“Are we talking about Gavin’s new girlfriend?” Michael questions, seeming to appear out of thin air the second someone mentions the possibility of embarrassing Gavin. Gavin groans and runs his hands through his hair, pressing his head against the table yet again. “Careful you don’t break the table, even if you’re not Jeremy.”

“She’s _not_ my girlfriend. Elyse is _married_ , you mincy little pricks.”

“Oh my, Gavin, I never expected you to be a _homewrecker!_ ” Ray says, mock shock. Gavin waves a hand at him, struggling to get the two lads to leave him in peace. “So? What’s she like? Is she smoking hot?”

“Dude, you _gotta_ tell Meg.”

Gavin swings backwards in his seat, making it rock with his weight as he tries to get his words out without making the situation worse for himself. “No! I don’t like her! I mean, I like her as a _friend_ , she’s great to talk to, but I don’t want to _kiss_ her or anything! God, she’s _married_ and I already _have_ a girlfriend!”

“Then what’s the problem?” Michael questions, tilting his head, “Just befriend the chick already.” Gavin tucks his legs up on his chair, resting his chin on a knee and glowering at the computer screen.

“I’m trying but, I don’t know, she’s a _civilian_ , I don’t want her to find out what I do for a living, she’ll _hate_ me when she finds out.”

“When who finds out?”

Gavin instantly perks up at the new voice, a smile coming to his face. He slips out of his seat and all but runs towards the entrance way. Meg shuts the door just in time for Gavin to wrap her up in a hug and press a kiss to her lips.

“When you find out Gavin’s cheating on you,” Ray says nonchalantly.

Gavin quickly snaps his head around to pout at Ray, “I am _not_ cheating! I don’t even _like_ Elyse like that!”

Meg simply laughs, “Uh huh, sure. So, when’s the threesome?” Gavin chokes and Michael cracks up laughing. “Is she hot at least?”

“Meeeeeeg!” She simply smiles and pinches his cheek.

Gavin tries to brush her off and she steps away, pulling her suitcase along with her. “You’re evil.”

“Glad you missed me whilst I was working,” she responds without hesitation, heels clicking across the wooden floorboards. “Tell Geoff and Ryan I’m back for two months before I fly off to Russia.” She disappears into their shared bedroom and Michael slides up beside Gavin.

“So,” he begins, and Gavin scrunches up his face, bracing himself, “ _Is_ she hot?”

A groan slips out of him and he sidesteps Michael. “I don’t know what you want me to say? Yes, she’s good-looking, no, I don’t want to shag her?”

“But you’re attracted to her, right?”

“Sod off!” Gavin can hear both Ray and Michael laughing behind him as he follows after Meg, finding her putting her clothes back in their dresser. He shakes off his displeased expression and smiles, walking over to bump against Meg’s side. “Have a good trip? How’d the job go?”

“Went perfect,” she responds, unzipping a special compartment in her suitcase to retrieve her gun and knife from within, “But I feel like I need to sterilise my weapons after I killed that guy; who _knows_ what kind of diseases he had, ugh.”

Gavin nods, “I saw a picture of him during research, didn’t look pretty.” Meg glances over her shoulder at him, setting her weapons down on the bedside table. She turns around and folds her arms across her chest. Gavin pauses and looks at her. “What?”

“I know you’re not cheating on me, I’d pick that up in an instant, and you know I’d destroy your already mangled balls if that was the case.” Gavin laughs, if only out of sheer nervous habit. “So, what’s up? Why are those two giving you shit?”

He shuffles on his feet, opening a drawer and putting Meg’s shirt in there neatly. “Do you want the full story?” He spots Meg nodding as she sits down on the bed, legs tucking up beneath her. She starts untying her hair from the two neat buns. Gavin sets aside unpacking, dropping down onto the mattress and then falling onto his back. Meg smiles down at him, locks of red hair falling around her face.

“So, like, a couple days ago I went to get coffee with Ryan and he stayed in the car. This girl works at the café and I talked to her and she just spoke to me like a normal person and stuff. She also gave me a marshmallow, how could I _not_ like her? I mean, friend-like her?” Meg nods in understanding, encouraging him to continue as she sets about untying her heels. “So I visited her at the café a couple more times afterwards, just talking and stuff, she already knew what I would want whenever I walked into the shop. I once saw her walking around right after a heist and saw FakeHaus was on their way to where we were, so I got her out of danger. Then, when I was off getting ammunition from a supplier with Michael and Jeremy, she just so happened to walk by.”

“Shit,” Meg quickly says, eyes widening as she drops her shoes to the floor.

Gavin laughs and shakes his head, “No, it’s all good, I was wearing Jeremy’s cowboy hat and I stole Michael’s jacket, so Elyse didn’t recognise me. I was worried about her though, because it was late at night and she wasn’t in a good neighbourhood, so I walked her home. She’s married though, so don’t worry, I didn’t actually go inside with her. I walked her to her street actually, just so her husband didn’t get jealous or what not. I want to message her online and stuff, but I don’t know, what if she finds out who I am and what I do?”

“Do you want to date her?” Meg asks, every bit serious. He shakes his head rapidly, without hesitation.

“No, nope, no way. I just like talking to her and stuff. She’s just, like, so… innocent? I mean, I like hanging out with the crew – and you of course – but she’s a civilian and it makes me feel normal when I talk to her about about things like video games or her dog Benson.”

Meg smiles and reaches out to pat his shoulder. “Don’t let them get to you, they’re just jealous that you have a new friend.” Gavin tilts his head to rest his cheek on the back of her hand. A thumb brushes over his face and then withdraws. Gavin’s head snaps up, suddenly remembering.

“Oh, I got you something from our heist!” he exclaims, rolling over and falling off the bed with a thud.

“Die quietly!” Jack shouts through his door. Gavin snickers and rubs his sore knee and elbow before dragging himself towards the bedside table. He pulls the drawer open and withdraws three items, quickly hiding them in his hands as he jumps back onto the bed, shuffling towards Meg.

“Okay, so, turn around and close your eyes.”

“If I’m turning around, why should I close my eyes?” she asks, smiling and halting halfway through the motion. Gavin sighs and pushes at her lightly, getting Meg to turn around fully. “Alright, alright, eyes are closed.” He checks that they really are closed first before he places two of the gifts on the bed sheets. He dangles the necklace up and unhooks it before looping it around Meg’s neck and locking it in place.

“You can look now.” Almost instantly, Meg shifts to the side and glances down at her chest, spotting the small pendant hanging from the silver chain.

“A necklace? Aw, that’s so sweet.”

“And,” Gavin begins, holding up the pair of earrings proudly, “Matching earrings to go with it!”

Meg reaches out and Gavin drops them neatly into her awaiting palm. She coos at the pretty diamond within the metalwork, running her nail delicately over the surface. “You spoil me rotten, you know. I should’ve bought you a gift too.”

Gavin grimaces. “No, I’m good; I’d rather _not_ have a heart in a jar again, thanks.”

“Not my fault you’re so weak,” Meg replies without hesitation, putting the earrings in after having inspected them. “Ryan liked his heart.”

“Yeah, but his taste varies from cute puppies to severed heads.”

“Again; not my fault you’re so weak,” Gavin giggle-squeaks and drops down on the bed once more, stretching out. She smiles after a while and stands up, looking at herself in the mirror. “I love them.”

“Not as much as you love me, right?” Gavin asks with a laugh. Meg looks at him in the reflection, her mouth twisting to the side as she hums and taps a finger at her chin. Gavin’s expression drops and he holds himself up on his elbows. “Turney… you love me more than a pair of earrings and a necklace, _right?_ ”

Meg sighs and rolls her eyes, spinning on the balls of her feet to face him with hands on her hips. “Of course I do, you big baby. You can’t take a joke, can you?” she teases.

“Hey, I can too!”

“Yeah, suuuuure.”

“I can!”

* * *

For once in Gavin’s lifetime, he enters a bank without a gun, without the intent to rob the place. Instead, he seats himself against the wall and withdraws his notepad, quickly sketching a layout of the room. He glances up occasionally, taking note of security cameras and switching to his red pen to mark their field of view and location. He doesn’t pay the civilians much attention, barely glancing at their faces as they file into lines or wait patiently in their seats. He makes sure no one else can see what he’s drawing, pushing the fake glasses further up on his nose.

Then he spots a particular man walking into the building. Gavin’s eyes widen as he takes in his appearance, quickly recognizing him as a member of FakeHaus. Something in his chest jumps and his fingers itch to grab a gun which isn’t there. He forcefully directs his attention back to his notepad, flipping the page and struggling to draw the man’s face and whatever he’s wearing, so he doesn’t forget to bring it up when he next talks to Geoff.

He’s waiting for Greene to pull out a gun, to start shooting up the place and command all the workers to get the money into disposable bags.

But nothing happens.

Gavin frowns a little and looks up, only to spot Peake and Kovic walking over to the seats opposite him. Gavin makes sure he doesn’t stare, instead looking at the couple standing in line, shamelessly flirting with each other.

Three FakeHaus members walk into a bank. It sounds like the setup for a bad joke. There’s bound to be more nearby if they’re planning on robbing the place.

Two fairly average-looking people walk in without incident, the crew members seeming to blend in just like anyone else. Then Gavin spots zebra-print pants and grimaces when Willems slides into the queue.

Five minutes later and Gavin’s struggling to keep count and track of the other crew member’s names and locations. Greene is leaning against a wall on the other side of the room, Kovic and Peake are sitting a few feet away from him, Willems is in the middle of the queue, he thinks he can see Rubin between a small group of teenagers, hanging out by the water fountain, and Poole went to the bathroom a few seconds ago.

He’s so distracted that it takes him a couple seconds to recognise the blonde standing at the end of the line.

Gavin stands up quickly and tenses when Sonntag walks in and looks at him as he takes off his fake glasses. He redirects his attention towards the queue, quickly walking over towards it and waiting patiently. Only then Armas walks in and Gavin knows he only has a couple moments until the shooting starts. Elyse taps her foot on the tiled floor, scratching at her nose as she waits.

Gavin excuses himself as he slides around the people in front and snags hold of Elyse by the elbow. She teeters and almost falls over when Gavin pulls her back a few spots, but she eases when she recognises him, only to visibly tense up again. “What’re you doing, Gavin? I need to withdraw-”

Gavin notices eyes on him and drags her into a hug, effectively cutting her off. Elyse sighs but returns the hug with a pat to his back. Gavin catches eyes with Greene accidentally and looks away before releasing Elyse. “Didn’t expect to run into you here, is all,” Gavin replies and jabs a thumb towards the exit, “You wanna go for a walk?”

“I, uh,” Elyse smiles apologetically and shakes her head, “Not right now, I need to make a withdrawal, but afterwards, sure?” Gavin’s eyebrows dip and his eyes flicker over to Willems when the man shifts position, but doesn’t begin the robbery quite yet.

“You sure? I know a top burger place around the corner that we can go to for grub.”

“Don’t use food against me, that’s not fair,” Elyse whines, shuffling awkwardly on the spot. The queue moves and she takes a step towards the bank teller, only for Gavin to reach out and grab her wrist. Elyse tries to shrug him off, looking conflicted. “Really, I need to-”

Gavin speaks in a low voice, all seriousness and no mirth, “There are at least seven FakeHaus crew members in here.” Elyse’s head snaps around to stare at him with wide eyes. Gavin knows he has her attention now. “I think they’re going to rob the place. Please, can we just go somewhere else?” Elyse opens her mouth to speak, but Gavin quickly tacks on, “I don’t want you to die today.”

That seems to change her mind, and her face softens. She smiles and nods hesitantly, glancing at something to her right before looking back at Gavin. “Okay, okay, I’ll make the deposit somewhere else.” Gavin doesn’t question why she said deposit instead of withdrawal that time, instead sighing in relief and hooking his arm with Elyse’s, dragging her to the bank entrance. He sees her raise a hand, like a wave, but when he looks she brushes her hand through her hair quickly and gives him a grin.

“That burger place better be worth it,” she warns, holding the door open for Gavin. He nods and leads her down the street. Her phone starts pinging. Gavin counts seven messages by the time she pulls the device out of her bag and sighs. Gavin sees something metal in her handbag but doesn’t want to pry and looks away as she types out a reply. “I’m just telling my friends that I’m going for food, they wanted to meet up but they’ve been on my nerves lately and I’d rather hang out with you anyways.”

“What about your husband, Jimmy?”

Elyse’s lips quirk and she shrugs. “He’s fine, I told him I’ve been hanging out with a friend and he doesn’t really care, but I’d rather be safe and keep you from meeting him in case, uh, in case he changes his mind.” Gavin nods in agreement and points at the sign on the corner street up ahead.

“That’s the place, you ever had a burger from there?”

Elyse shakes her head, “Nah, my friends and I don’t get to do much fun stuff outside of home, we usually order food and then take it back to our place to eat and hang out.” Gavin’s eyebrows dip with concern; what kind of friends are Elyse’s like if they don’t do fun things? He can’t really complain; all of Gavin’s friends outside of Elyse are crew members and killers who don’t want to attract any attention when they want to simply have fun.

If they weren’t criminals, Gavin would have invited Elyse to hang out with them in an instant. Maybe their B-Team could organise a small get-together – at least they won’t be recognised right away unless they mention all the illegal stuff they do for work. For now though, Gavin simply directs Elyse into the burger joint and seats them at a table by the window – Gavin wants to see what happens when FakeHaus decides to rob the bank, see how long it takes for the police to arrive and such. He passes Elyse the single menu supplied, already knowing what he’s getting, and waits patiently.

“How many times do you visit this place?” Elyse questions, running her finger over the available food options. The bracelet he gave her a while ago jingles and Gavin can’t help but smile happily.

Gavin shrugs and places his fake glasses on the table, “Ah, just occasionally with friends.”

He remembers the last time he came here; Meg, Lindsay, Michael and him had tucked themselves into the far corner of the building, in a booth. Meg switched places with Lindsay while Michael was sat opposite him, which meant there was a lot of awkward footsie being played under the table. Was that Meg’s foot running down the side of his shin or Lindsay’s? Judging by the way it then slammed into the top of his own foot when he spilt his drink, nope, that’s definitely Michael. The night ended with Michael covered in tomato sauce, Lindsay struggling to keep her husband from strangling an equally mustard-covered Gavin, and Meg laughing her ass off behind the trio, a party hat on her head.

Elyse spots the fond smile on his face. “Yeah? You have fun?”

“Oh, yeah, of course. We always hang out here and usually end up faffing around. I can’t remember the last time we _weren’t_ asked to leave the premises before they call the coppers!” Elyse laughs softly, and Gavin relaxes. When the waitress appears at their side, Gavin gets them both milkshakes because he can. Elyse rolls her eyes and mutters something about him being a child. Gavin then orders his meal and Elyse surprises him by ordering the same thing.

“What?” she goes as the waitress walks away, “I wanted to try it. I didn’t know you were getting the same thing.”

Gavin holds his hands up, “Hey, not judgin’.”

She nods and hums before changing topics, “What did you mean by there were FakeHaus members in the bank?” Elyse questions. Gavin really should have expected her to ask that question, should have preconceived some kind of excuse to respond with.

“Well, I haven’t been entirely honest with you, Elyse,” he begins with a short laugh. Something like betrayal flashes across her face, filled with regret, and Gavin’s stomach twists itself into knots. He quickly rethinks his next words before spewing them out. “I’m, uh, the company I work at? They’re trying to secretly track down FakeHaus. I just make sure their security firewalls are in place so the crew can’t hack into their mainframe, but I honestly don’t participate much in their search for the crew. I just see their faces on the computer screens a lot, don’t worry, I’m not in any kind of danger or anything! I just kinda took the job because it was the only thing that paid well.”

He plays up the guilt as much as he thinks he can get away with. Elyse’s face softens and she smiles. “That’s okay, I understand. Which company was it you said you worked at?”

“The, uh, Corpirate? Yeah, you know of them?”

Something indecipherable flashes across Elyse’s face but she nods and purses her lips in thought. “Yeah, I know them. Not much but I’ve seen their name around on TV.” The waitress returns and slides them both their milkshakes. Elyse’s face lights up and she thanks the woman, leaning back in her seat with her drink. A pleased grin comes to her face as soon as she takes a sip, “Wow, these are great! I might need to start working here to get their secret recipes.”

“I’ll visit daily for discounts.”

“Hah, you wish!” Elyse barks out. Gavin’s thankful that she’s being so light-hearted; Gavin’s had enough drama trying to keep Elyse and his criminal work life separate. They both take a drink, sitting in comfortable silence, listening to the idle chatter around them, the thrum of cooking and food sizzling.

“So,” Elyse begins, “How’s Meg?”

“Oh, she’s great!” Gavin responds without hesitation, “She’s flying out for another photoshoot in two months so I’m spending as much time with her as possible.”

Elyse pulls face, “I don’t mean to drag you away from her, sorry if I’m in the way.”

That makes Gavin laugh, “Trust me, if you were in the way I’d let you know.”

“Oh good, you really _aren’t_ a pushover then.” Gavin lets out an offended noise, leaning back in his seat as Elyse laughs at his puffed up cheeks. The waitress returns a third time and places two plates before them, a burger and pile of chips on them both. Gavin thanks her and she leaves with a smile. Elyse puts tomato sauce on her chips before she picks up the burger and inspects it curiously. “How much weight do you reckon I’m gonna gain if I eat these weekly?”

“Oh, I eat these maybe once a fortnight with friends and I’m barely a hundred and fifty pounds, so not much.”

Elyse just shrugs, “It wouldn’t have mattered if you said I was gonna die if I ate this, I’m still gonna eat it.” Gavin snickers and tries not to let anything slip out of his own burger as he takes a bite. Elyse flings a chip a him in the meantime, landing square in the middle of his forehead and falling to the table. He lets out a whine and frowns at Elyse, only for her to snicker at him and busy herself with her own meal. She ends up with sauce on her chin but still laughs at Gavin around a mouthful of food when he lifts his head up.

“Wot?” he asks, voice muffled.

Elyse wipes at her mouth and swallows before responding. “You got tomato sauce on your face and lettuce in your beard.” Gavin grabs his phone out and uses the camera to look at himself. He hears a shutter click and tenses up, looking at Elyse with wide eyes.

“What’re you doing? Are you posting that online?”

Elyse quirks an eyebrow. “What? Nah, then people would, like, uh, flood this place. I have so many followers on twitter, this place would be overrun.”

“Well, maybe the workers wouldn’t be opposed to that, but I am. Can you, like, not put that online?” Elyse nods slowly, and Gavin’s shoulders relax. “Okay, but is it funny?”

“Hilarious. Can I show my husband?”

“Ssssure?” Gavin’s at least ninety nine percent certain a regular civilian isn’t going to recognise Gavin, especially since he does all his heists wearing a mask. “Yeah, go for it. Also send it to me, I bet you Meg would love to see it.” Elyse nods and hesitates a second before sliding her phone over to Gavin. He’s polite enough to wipe his hands off before touching the phone, quickly creating a new contact and typing in his phone number. He’s going to get so much shit from Geoff if he finds out he gave his personal phone number to a regular civilian, to someone outside of the crew and B-Team.

But… it’s _Elyse_ , she’s harmless.

“There you go,” Gavin says, handing the phone back to her, “Send it to me.” Nodding her head, Elyse holds the burger in one hand and taps at her screen with the other. Not even a minute later, his phone buzzes with the image and a message underneath it.

**[Unknown Number]** **_  
_ ** **_‘Huge nerd alert’_ **

Gavin pokes his tongue out at Elyse, only for her to snap another picture of him. Gavin blinks in surprise, “Hey, no fair, I wasn’t ready.”

“That’s the point,” she responds, poking her own tongue out at him. Gavin sulks and resumes eating his chips, not even bothering to look at the new text that buzzes through his phone, seeing it’s from Elyse and knowing what the attached image is going to be. He picks up a napkin, finally wipes his face clean, and eats the leftover lettuce, much to Elyse’s amusement.

The sound of sirens blare from nearby and Gavin jumps a little in his seat. He leans towards the window and tries to peer down the street behind Elyse. Sure enough, he spots a car he recognises as one of FakeHaus’ zipping down the road, people streaming out of the bank now that they’re not being held hostage. Elyse’s lips twitch but Gavin brushes it off.

“You’re not going to abandon me to go do your deposit withdrawal thing now that the coast is clear, are you?” While he’s not going to stop her from leaving, he’d much rather stay here and eat with her than just sulk in the corner with his burger. He shoves a chip into his mouth to stop himself from saying something else embarrassing.

“Nah,” Elyse responds with a shake of her head, “I’d never willingly pass up food, I’m not a monster.” Gavin snickers but nods understandingly, watching Elyse take a bite of her meal before placing the burger down on her plate. “I do, however, need to go to the toilet. Be back in a tick.” He notices her hand slip into her bag, retrieving her phone, but doesn’t call her out on it. Maybe she just needs to make a phone call and wants privacy away from prying ears. Anyways, who’s he to judge? He’s a wanted criminal and his entire backstory is a lie.

He returns to eating his meal, waiting for Elyse to return. He notices someone seating themselves across from him and lifts his head to smile.

“That was qui-” Gavin cuts himself short when he spots a frowning Michael. He feels a vice-like grip squeeze around his heart and his eyes glance over at the closed bathroom door.

“What’re you doing here without the rest of the squad?” Michael asks, grabbing one of Elyse’s uneaten chips and shoving it into his mouth.

“Michael, I’m busy.” That only makes the other man snort, flicking a finger at the plate before him.

“Looks to me like you’re on a date. I thought Meg was back home?”

Gavin looks around for some way to escape. Maybe he can wait outside the bathrooms to try and distract Elyse from looking at Michael, but that might be a little too close to creepy for Gavin’s liking. “She is, I think. I’m here with Elyse.”

Michael chokes on his stolen chip. “Gavin, what the fuck? You’re playing a dangerous game, dude.” Gavin shrinks under Michael’s harsh glare, shrugging.

“Yeah, but she’s nice.”

“You realise FakeHaus just hit the bank we were planning on heisting, right?”

Gavin quickly perks up and nods, “Yeah, I was in there when I saw them entering the place! Elyse was in there too, so I quickly got her out and dragged her here so she didn’t get caught up in it. What happened?” Gavin internally slaps himself. “No, tell me later. She can’t see you! What if she recognises you from a news report? Michael, please, I just… she’s a great friend and I don’t want her to hate me for what I do.” The sigh Michael lets out almost makes Gavin feel guilty for brushing him off so easily, but he’s grateful when the other man stands up from the table begrudgingly.

“Fine. But I expect you to be home before six, got it?”

“Yes, _Dad_ ,” Gavin replies with a cheeky grin. Michael pulls a face before walking away to the door and leaving with a squeak of metal hinges.

The bathroom door opens and Elyse returns to the table, smiling at Gavin, “Sorry that took so long, someone I recognised was in there and wanted to talk.” Gavin just nods and resumes eating his meal now that he’s confident he’s not about to choke on his food. Elyse drinks her milkshake but her eyes skim to something outside the diner. Gavin doesn’t look over his shoulder at what it is, simply watches as Elyse’s eyes track something – or rather _someone_ – as they walk past the window.

_Michael._

Sure enough, a familiar Jersey man brushes past the window and continues walking down the street, towards the bank. Gavin noticeably leans out of his seat to look at him, then back at Elyse. She quickly rights herself and makes out as if she wasn’t looking at some _‘stranger’_. “Whatcha lookin’ at?” Gavin questions.

“Thought I recognised someone,” she explains with a shrug. Gavin swallows down a nervous laugh and nods, taking another bite out of his burger. Idly, he wonders how long it’s going to be before FakeHaus realise that a member of the Fake AH Crew is encroaching upon their territory incidentally; the café, the park, the store, and even the bank are all in FakeHaus territory.

“Did you want to meet up later in the week?” he suggests, stealing the tomato sauce from Elyse’s side of the table.

“Yeah, sure. Any ideas where you wanna go?”

Gavin shrugs and taps a finger at the table in thought. “Somewhere fun? Like, uh, lazer tag or bowling or-”

“The pier!” Elyse exclaims. Gavin’s grin widens and he nods automatically in agreement. And then he realises that the pier is in FakeHaus territory and his expression falters for a split second. Elyse picks up on it and tilts her head. “What, you scared of fun rides and heights?”

“A little,” he lies, shrugging. Elyse’s face gets slightly sinister and Gavin worries she’s actually planning on making him throw up by taking him on the rollercoaster one too many times. He’s probably going to throw up after one ride, in all honesty. “You’re bloody scary when you look at me like that.”

“Good!” Elyse returns to her burger, leaving Gavin to laugh softly, faking being nervous, even if he’s jittery and excited simply by the idea of spending more time with Elyse, especially if it means he can have simple and plain fun.

Because while flying around in a helicopter with his crew is exhilarating; while running through alleyways from an angry, drunk asshole he just stole from pumps adrenaline through his veins; while shooting a golden pistol at police officers as they chase him sparks pride in his chest, there’s just _something_ special about doing normal things like going down to the pier with an average person that really hits him right in the heart and makes Gavin feel like he’s been shot and simultaneously like he’s floating.

Gavin knows he’s screwed if Elyse ever finds out what he does when he’s got his face hidden behind a mask.

* * *

“Hey, where’s Meg?”

Ray doesn’t even raise his head up from where he’s tucked into the couch, simply lifts a hand from his DS, points down the hall, and says, “Bathroom.” Gavin sets aside his keys on the kitchen counter and walks down the hall. He hears the shower on the other side of the bathroom door and opens it up.

“Hey!” comes a startled call, Meg sticking her head out from behind the glass screen with a displeased glower, hair bleached near-white. Upon spotting Gavin quickly slipping his way inside the room and shutting the door behind himself, she relaxes, “Oh, hey, how’s your day been?” She returns to the stream of warm water and Gavin seats himself on the small stool in the middle of the room. _Doesn’t this belong out in the living room?_

“It was great! Mission kinda failed though, FakeHaus hit the bank before we could.”

“Mmm, bummer,” Meg says sympathetically.

Gavin waves a hand like it’s nothing, “Don’t worry about it, I bumped into Elyse and we had some food at the burger joint you, I, and the Jones' visit.”

“Yeah? How’d that go?” she questions, turning off the water. Gavin reaches over and grabs a towel, passing it to her as she steps out of the shower. She gets to work drying her unnaturally light hair, rubbing the towel over her head.

“Went great! Until Michael appeared.” Meg pauses then shifts her hair and the towel out of the way to quirk an eyebrow at him. “He just… walked on in and sat down in Elyse’s spot whilst she was in the bathroom! It was such a close call, she would have hated me afterwards if she ever found out Michael’s my best friend.” Meg hums and wraps her towel around her middle, making shooing motions at Gavin. He slides off the stool and Meg takes his place.

“Well, that’s a little rude,” she remarks, rubbing her arms and legs dry. “Oh, can you call for Lindsay please?”

“Yeah? What do you need her for?” Either way, he opens the door and sticks his head out. “LINDS! NEED YOU! BATHROOM!”

“COMING!”

“Well, I don’t trust you with hair dye is what I need her for.” Meg shuffles and sticks her feet out to the counter, catching a small cardboard box between them and bringing it closer into her hands. “And the others are out somewhere.”

Gavin hums and seats himself on the counter, “Yeah, went to go talk things over with B-Team I reckon.”

“That’s right, Bragg said he found us a possible lead whilst looking through FakeHaus’ personal details.” Gavin quirks an eyebrow curiously and looks ready to ask further questions when the bathroom door opens.

“Yeah, Gav-?” Lindsay stops dead in her tracks when she spots the two of them, her face heating up upon seeing Meg sitting on the stool with just a towel to cover herself, skin glistening with water, and wet hair hanging around her shoulders. “Oh, shit, hi Meg, I’ll just, I’ll leave you two-”

Meg simply snorts at Lindsay and cuts her off, “Don’t be silly, I asked Gavin to call for you. The blonde dye is easy to do blind but I’d rather not end up having a purple eyebrow thanks. And I don’t want Mr Accident-Prone over here to come anywhere near me with semi-permanent anything.” Gavin lets slip an offended noise and Lindsay chuckles nervously as she steps inside the bathroom and shuts the door behind herself, steam fogging the air.

“Does that mean you’re going to be the future Miss Accident-Prone?”

Gavin giggles and Meg rolls her eyes.

“Just because you and Michael got married doesn’t mean you should make everyone get married.” Lindsay just grins and happily accepts the purple hair dye when Meg passes it to her along with the plastic gloves from within. “I mean, are you going to tell Jack and Geoff to get married because they’re the original members of the crew?”

Lindsay pulls a face, “Oh, what? C’mon, that’s different.”

“Oh! Linds, love,” Gavin begins asking, catching her attention with one glove on and the tube of dye hanging from her mouth, “Do you remember what the crew was doing out with B-Team today?”

It takes her a couple seconds to finish putting on the second glove and take the dye out of her mouth before responding. “Yeah, remember how it was Matt who got wind that they were planning on hitting the jewellery store? Well he managed to trace the owner’s IP address or something and found where they live.”

“Really? Bloody terrific! Now we can _really_ show those mongs what happens when they mess with the Fake AH Crew!” Meg chuckles and tips her head back when Lindsay taps a finger at her chin, allowing the other woman to begin putting the dye into her hair. “Did Geoff say when we were planning on hitting them?”

“No, not that I know of. He said to me something about waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike, once FakeHaus takes down the treaty of course.”

“You think they’re going to do that?”

Lindsay scoffs but nods quickly, “Considering how much the two crews have been at each other’s throats for the past few weeks, someone’s definitely going to break the treaty soon, so it’s best to call it off before someone looks like they’re the bad guy.”

“Media’s gonna have a field day when the two crews become openly hostile once again,” Meg says sourly. Gavin shudders but nods in agreement; he can still remember the seemingly endless bloodshed that occurred when there wasn’t a mutual agreement between the two crews that kept them from starting an outright war and relatively out of each other’s hair.

“Hmm, why the change in colour?” Lindsay questions, shifting the hair to the side so she can get at the roots.

“Why not? I’ll probably go blue after this.”

“Yeah? I’ll be happy to help when you do.”

Gavin watches with mild curiosity and a dab of dubiety as Meg tilts her head back and winks at Lindsay, only for Lindsay to threaten her eyebrows with her purple gloves. Meg returns to staring at her reflection in the foggy mirror and Gavin chuckles some more before excusing himself.

He pauses halfway out the door and grins at Meg, “Oh, almost forgot! I’m going out with Elyse to the pier on Friday.”

“Have fun and use protection.”

Gavin splutters, Meg laughs, Lindsay looks mildly alarmed and entirely confused.

* * *

As soon as Gavin leaves for the pier, Michael stands up and wanders over to Gavin’s computer. Lindsay watches from her seat on the couch, lips pressing into a thin line. As soon as Michael realises the laptop’s locked and he has zero chance of getting in, he curses under his breath and grabs his keys.

A door from down the hall opens. “Hey, Michael, can you come help me please?” Meg sticks her head out of the shared bedroom, smiling at him with her newly-dyed purple hair hanging over her shoulders. Michael looks down at the keys in his hand, then at the door, and sighs heavily. He tosses the keys back onto the kitchen counter and wanders down the hall.

“Okay, fine, but this better be good.”

Meg waits until Michael steps into the bedroom before clarifying what she needs his help with. “My blades are looking a little dull, can you please sharpen them for me?”

“Why can’t you do it yourself?” he asks, glowering at the collection of knives lying on the bed quilt.

“Because I have a lot of research to do currently and I need it done before I fly out.” Michael continues to stare at her stubbornly for another ten seconds before giving in with a heavy sigh.

“Fine, fine, but you owe me for this.”

Meg smiles gratefully and nods, agreeing instantly.

Meanwhile, out in the living room…

“And where do you think _you’re_ going?” Ryan questions. Lindsay steps backwards from the door, allowing Ryan to enter the penthouse and shut the front door, locking them both inside.

“Uhm, out?” Ryan doesn’t move from his position in front of the doorway. “Just need to do some shopping, what’s wrong with that?”

“I don’t really believe you is what’s wrong with that.”

Lindsay rolls her eyes exaggeratedly. “What else could I be doing?”

Ryan quirks an eyebrow and says, with zero amounts of mirth, “Helping your husband spy on Gavin and his new friend?” Lindsay chokes on her own tongue. Ryan smirks and holds his hand out. “Keys please.” She hands them over begrudgingly and watches as Ryan locks the penthouse door and points her towards the couch. “Why is Michael so interested anyways?”

“Because Gavin’s cheating! It’s not fair on Meg!”

Ryan stares at her for a solid three seconds before bursting into laughter.

Lindsay’s concerned expression only deepens further, “What? What’s the matter?”

“You and Michael are acting like _you’re_ the ones dating Gavin.”

Lindsay finds herself tongue-tied and Ryan simply laughs harder. The noise attracts Michael’s attention and he quickly departs from his job, not going unnoticed by Meg who trails after him.

“What’re you laughing about?” Michael asks once he spots Ryan, glancing over at a rather flustered looking Lindsay.

“You and Lindsay, you’re so worried about Gavin cheating on Meg but Meg’s not even phased in the slightest.” Meg nods in agreement and folds her arms over her chest, leaning against the wall to watch.

“I’m mad _for_ Meg! Last I saw, Gavin was on a _date_ with her at the diner we usually visit!”

“I know,” Meg responds, tilting her head at him.

Michael spins around to stare at her. “You _know?_ ” He questions, Meg nodding again for confirmation. “You know that he’s cheating then?”

“He’s not cheating? You _do_ realise friends go out for lunch together too, right? That’s what _we_ do.” Michael huffs something about that being different under his breath and glances at Lindsay, moving over to take a seat beside her. “Besides, I trust him. He says he’s not interested in her like that, then he’s not interested in her like that.”

“But you don’t _know_ that,” Lindsay reasons.

“I do if I’ve spied on them once or twice. She seems sweet and loyal to her husband, just like Gavin’s loyal to me. Good job on interrupting them, by the way.” Michael snorts and looks away with an incoherent grumble. Meg shifts her gaze to Ryan. “Did she try to go instead of Michael?” Ryan nods and Lindsay slouches in her seat when Meg looks over at her. “C’mon, Lindsay, it’s _Gavin_ , he’s not unfaithful.”

She lets out a sigh but nods in agreement, “Yeah, but I also wanted to meet the mystery girl. He makes her sound great.”

Ryan shrugs and says, “That’s fair enough.” He then shuffles over to the kitchen, grabbing out a silver can from the fridge. He cracks it open and takes a sip, meandering back towards the other trio. “So, Meg?” Said woman perks up and hums questioningly. “Do we educate them?”

Lindsay tilts her head, “Huh?”

“I mean, you don’t have any more murder sprees to go on, do you?” Ryan chuckles but shakes his head, continuing to drink his diet coke. “We can educate them then.”

“Stop being mysterious, what are you gonna _‘educate’_ us on?”

“Squishes.”

Michael blinks. “What?”

Meg rolls her eyes and decides to translate for Ryan. “A squish is basically a friend crush. Instead of wanting to get in a relationship with someone, you want a really close friendship. That’s basically what Gavin’s got going on, as far as I know.”

“Did you just make that up?” Lindsay looks between the two curiously.

“No,” Ryan interjects, “It’s not that hard to understand either. It also makes sense as to why Gavin was nervous when he wanted to contact her; it’s the same as any other crush, it’s just platonic.”

Michael frowns at them both and asks, “So, what? Gavin has a friend-boner?”

“I guess?” Meg shrugs. “No sex involved. No kissing either. Usually.”

“Usually?”

Meg shrugs. “Some kiss, usually people who aren’t romantic, but it’s flexible. I doubt that’s Gavin seeing as he’s dating me.”

“How do you know so much about this?” Lindsay questions curiously. Meg glances at Ryan silently, the two seeming to exchange a small conversation as they do so. Lindsay looks between them both with a small frown, not liking being excluded, even if Michael is equally as confused. “What? You hiding a secret or something?”

“Not really, no. I mean, Ryan had a squish once,” Meg announces proudly. The two Jones’ attention quickly shifts to the other man, who coincidentally takes a long drink of his coke and can’t answer instantaneously. “Take one guess as to who it was on.”

Michael’s head snaps over to her. “No, shit, really? _You?_ Does Gavin know?”

A laugh escapes her and Meg moves away from the wall to stand in front of the two, hands on her hips. “What does Gavin have to do with it? He’s not in charge of who I can and cannot be _friends_ with. That’s what’s happening. Gavin has a new _friend_ , Michael, a _friend_.”

Then something seems to snap into place and Meg openly stares at Michael. “Oh, shit, really? You’re _jealous?_ ”

“Fuck no I’m not _jealous_ , where the hell did you get _that_ from?” Michael responds defensively, shoulders up.

Ryan laughs some more. “Oh wow, you’re actually _worried_ the new girl is going to take your Best Friend Status.” Michael can’t help but glower at the man as he guffaws. Lindsay looks at Michael with a small smile on her face, like she’s amused by Michael’s embarrassment.

“He just talks about her so much,” Michael rebuffs, “It’s annoying!”

“Uh huh, sure.” Meg nods her head slowly, eyes wide and a smirk on her face. “He talks about her like you talked about him did when you two first met. No, wait, I think you talked about Gavin even more.” Her heels click on the floor as she wanders into the kitchen, Michael huffing behind her. “How about I make some dinner instead? Ryan, can you come help me?”

“Of course.” He turns to follow her, only to stop and look back at the couple. “You two, no more spying on Gavin’s friend.”

Michael pulls a face but Lindsay nods in agreement. Ryan smiles warmly and wanders into the kitchen, happily accepting the packet of raw chicken and picking up a knife to help prepare dinner.

* * *

“Elyse!” Gavin waves an arm overhead when he spots her walking along the pier. Her head snaps up at the sound of her name and she spots Gavin, waving in return and hurrying over to him. Her bracelet bounces and jingles as she approaches. Elyse opens her arms up and all but drags Gavin into a hug. He doesn’t complain, he’s just a little surprised and hugs back with equal enthusiasm.

“Are you excited?” Elyse questions when she retreats and looks up at Gavin’s face. “You ever been here before?”

He nods enthusiastically and points across the pier at the brightly flashing lights. “You see the dent in the railing over there? That was from when I attempted to climb the roller coaster and fell. Left a massive bruise on my thigh too!”

Elyse winces sympathetically, “Ouch, must’ve hurt.”

“Oh it did, don’t worry, love.” Gavin giggles and although Elyse gives him an odd look, there’s a smile hiding on her lips.

“Let’s go then.” She reaches out to grab Gavin by the wrist, all but tugging him along for the first few steps as she leads him over towards the roller coaster. “This time, don’t try climbing it, maybe try staying in your seat like a normal person?”

“No guarantees,” is his automatic response. Elyse snorts at him but drags him into the short line and pulls her purse out of a pocket. “Oh, no, I can pay.”

“No way! Look, I’ll pay for the rides, you can pay for the food.” Gavin purses his lips, staring at her indecisively. Elyse folds her arms over her chest and turns to face him stubbornly. “I’m not moving on that.”

A heavy sigh leaves Gavin and he nods in defeat, “Okay, you pay for the rides then. There’s only two of them anyways.” Elyse grins triumphantly and turns around, watching as the thrilled civilians exit the roller coaster and the next lot line up to enter. They don’t get on the ride, two seats too short, and are stuck waiting at the front of the line. Gavin shrugs and turns to Elyse saying, “At least we can get the very front seats next time.” Elyse nods in agreement and watches as the ride sets into motion. Gavin follows her gaze as they ascend the hill towards the top, their chatter audible from the ground. Gavin giggles when he hears their screams of fear and delight as the coaster does spirals and dips. Idly, he wonders if Elyse is going to shout on the ride; Gavin figures he’s going to yell, scream, and possibly vomit when he teeters off of it at the end.

He leans into Elyse when he next talks, so she can hear him over the blare of music. “Are you scared?”

“No. It’s only scary movies and games that get to me, not awesome roller coaster rides. Jump scares are the _worst_.” Gavin can’t really argue with her logic; the last time he watched Gothika he ended up yelping so loudly at the jumpscares that Michael and Geoff left the room and by the end of it he was plastered to Meg’s side with her arm as a makeshift teddybear.

It’s only when Gavin finds himself strapped into the seats of the coaster, reaching the highest point of the ride and staring at the rest of the railing he has to endure that he realises he’s made a terrible mistake.

He ends up being slammed against Elyse’s side, apologising to her as they loop down in a spiral. She’s unfazed though and tosses one of her hands into the air, the other gripping the railing. Gavin's knuckles are white from how tight he's holding onto the metal bar. He hears the screams of the people behind him and wheezes, clutching onto the ride tighter. Elyse whoops as they straighten out and climb back upwards to begin another spiral. He has roughly three seconds to wonder why the ride is called The Leviathan before he knocks his head against the side of his cart. While he hisses mildly in pain, Elyse hollers and grins as they come out of the spiral.

By the time they come to a stop, Gavin is struggling to get out of his seat. As soon as the bar comes up, Gavin all but launches himself out of his seat and towards the exit. He hears Elyse calling out his name as he descends the stairs but finds he can’t be bothered responding to her. He skids on the last step and scrapes his knee along the ground, hissing painfully. His tummy lurches and Gavin shoves himself to the right mere seconds before he throws up the contents of his stomach into the ocean.

He feels a hand patting his back reassuringly when he spits the last few bits out, glancing over to see Elyse crouching beside him. She’s smiling, but there’s a hint of apologeticness in her eyes. “Not feeling good?” Gavin shakes his head and turns back around in time to release some bile into the rolling waves below. Elyse sucks in a breath between her teeth and her hand retreats. He hears her footsteps fade away and idly wonders where she’s going.

A couple moments later, Gavin  senses her sitting beside him more than anything else and looks back. She holds out a napkin to him and Gavin gratefully accepts it, wiping at his mouth. His knee flares searing hot when something touches it and he whines, flinching away. Elyse sighs loudly and rolls her eyes. “Baby,” she mumbles, continuing to pat at his bleeding knee with the second napkin. Gavin looks away with a huff, wincing whenever he feels the sting of pain. “There, look, not so bad, was it?” Gavin glances down to see his graze is mostly cleaned up and the bleeding had stopped.

He still wrinkles his nose up at her exaggeratedly and says, “You’d make a horrible nurse.”

“Good thing I’m not one then.” Gavin sighs and leans against the railing for a couple more seconds before he feels a hand wrap around his bicep and urge him up. “C’mon, stand, you can’t stay here all day.” He whines and tries to brush Elyse off, but she’s insistent and continually encourages him to get to his feet until he finally gives in. Elyse smiles and nods approvingly. “There you go. Now, do you want food first or ferris wheel? I mean, Ferris Whale?”

Gavin perks up and looks around. He spots a stall for hot food and points towards it. “How about hot chips and some donuts?”

Elyse’s smile gets wider and she begins walking over towards the building. “You think I’m going to say no to such a good offer? You can pay this time.” Gavin chuckles and quickly trails after her, pulling out his wallet. When he reaches the stall and breathes in deeply, Gavin’s caught between ordering a burger or simply sticking to the hot chips. Thankfully, Elyse solves his dilemma. “I don’t know about you, but I want to try one of their burgers. If I don’t like them, I can just steal your chips, right?”

“Thief,” Gavin replies with a snicker. Elyse’s eyes widen momentarily but she quickly relaxes upon realizing it’s a joke and laughs. “But, yeah, sure, go ahead, as long as I can have a taste of the burger too? I’ll buy half a dozen donuts too.”

“You think you can eat all that?” He frowns a little, asking what she means. “I mean you’re…” Elyse gestures at his body, “Yeah. That.”

“And what’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means I could probably bench press you.”

Gavin can’t argue with that; he’s been used as a form of strength-measurement on multiple occasions, including being lifted, being carried, and being thrown. He still has bruises on his shoulder from where Michael tossed him onto the mattress and he bounced off and slammed into the floor. It’s common knowledge that basically everyone in the crew is stronger than him. Except for maybe Ray, but Ray doesn’t really participate in much outside of gaming and shooting.

And occasionally blowing shit up for the hell of it.

“You probably could,” he admits with a shrug of his shoulder. The woman in front of them steps out of line and Gavin approaches the man working the stall. Elyse chips in which burger she wants and Gavin orders the chips and doughnuts before handing over the money. Whilst waiting for the food to cook, they stand off to the side and Gavin distracts himself with his phone. Elyse peers over his shoulder at the screen and her face goes soft upon spotting the many kittens on the screen.

“Cat lover?” she questions, tilting her head curiously.

“Mhm, if I could I’d get at least ten or twenty, but my friends won’t let me. We never get to, like, have this kinda fun either, don’t go out for a day at the park or just to go walking through shopping centres.” Mostly because the mall cops would be on their asses the second they showed their faces. “They’re always either really serious or we stay at our place and play games or we get drunk.”

Elyse hums lowly and nods, “Yeah, I’m in the same boat too. Don’t get me wrong, they’re great fun to be with, but we don’t really do normal things often.”

Gavin perks up with a smile and nod, “Yeah! It’s just, I like hanging out with them, but there’s always too much of one thing and it can get tiring after a while and maybe you kinda just wanna do something else for a difference and- I mean wot?”

Elyse cracks up and laughs, mouth wide and eyes scrunching up around the corners. Gavin giggles away too, a squeak slipping out. Elyse snickers at the noise and holds a hand over her mouth, shaking her head softly.

“No, I understand,” she says once she regains the ability to speak, “It’s like if you ate ice cream every day, you’d get tired of it after a while, even if it’s still good. Besides, I tend to make a lot of mistakes that my friends always get upset about.”

“I know right! I mean, they call me _‘The Breaker of Everything’_ and they let me do dumb stuff only to laugh at me when it all goes wrong!” Elyse apparently can’t contain her sniggering, eyes sparkling as she looks at Gavin. He pulls a face but Elyse just laughs harder. “Hey, it’s not _that_ funny, I’m always the one getting hurt!”

“Maybe it’s a sign you shouldn’t do dumb stuff?”

“Aw, but where’s the fun in that?”

The man calls out their food’s ready and Elyse turns to take the chips, stating she doesn’t want Gavin dropping them and then spending the rest of the night sulking. He admits defeat and lets her carry the chips, but not without snagging a few for himself before leading them over to a bench. Gavin hands Elyse her burger as a trade for his chips when they sit down, the doughnuts resting between them.

“Please tell me the ferris wheel isn’t going to make you throw up too,” Elyse starts.

Gavin shakes his head, “No, the spinning and jerky movements is what did it for me. Besides, why are _you_ worried? I was the one who spent money on the food, so it’s my loss if it ends up in the ocean by the end of the ride.” Elyse shrugs and resumes eating. Gavin inspects his damaged knee and purses his lips thinking about how the crew’s going to laugh at him when he retells the story.

Elyse says something about the burger being good and Gavin asks to try some. She looks partially conflicted before handing the burger over and letting him take a bite. She says something about _‘Gavin-cooties’_ and steals some of his chips as payback before receiving her burger once again.

By the time Gavin’s finished off most of the chips, Elyse has completely consumed her burger. She licks the sauce off of her fingers and Gavin snickers at her until she pokes her tongue out. Elyse glances down at the doughnuts between them and smiles.

“Oh, idea, how about we eat the donuts on the ferris wheel?” Gavin feels his eyes go comically wide at the suggestion, quickly nodding his assent to the idea. Elyse tucks the box under her arms and stands, scrunching up the paper in her hand and placing it in the empty hot chips container. Gavin drops it into the trash as he passes, humming and staring at the large wheel as it turns, the lights flickering in the darkness. Elyse leads him up to the ticket vendor and hands over the money. It’s not as popular as the roller coaster, so it takes barely a minute before they find themselves in one of the compartments.

Elyse opens the box of doughnuts and offers one to Gavin first before lounging in her corner. Gavin leans backwards and pokes his foot at her, Elyse’s lips quirking at the corners as she turns to nudge him with her sneakers. Elyse muffles her disapproval with her first doughnut when Gavin tosses his legs over her lap with a grin. She puts her handbag on his shins in response as he snags himself a doughnut. Gavin silently wonders what she has in her bag to make it so heavy; it feels like she has a brick in there, but he doesn’t want to bring it up in case he embarrasses her.

Instead, Gavin lolls his head backwards and looks out over Los Santos as they ascend slowly but surely. “It’s so pretty…” Elyse hums agreeingly beside him, picking up her second doughnut. Gavin pulls out his phone with his unoccupied hand and takes a few pictures, sending them to a majority of his contacts, namely the entire crew and B-Team plus Meg. He turns around to smile at Elyse, swallowing the last of his doughnut and asking, “Can we do this more often? Like, go places and just wing it?”

“Yeah, sure, I actually was going to bring a surprise with me the next time we meet.”

“What is it, love?” Gavin questions, leaning in closer.

Elyse just wiggles her fingers at him, shaking her head, “Nope, not saying, then it won’t be a surprise.”

Even if Gavin pouts at her and threatens to take away her doughnut privileges, Elyse just quirks an eyebrow at him and grabs her third and final one before he can stop her. She suggests they meet up the following day, stating that after then she’s going to be very busy with work-related things. Gavin’s not quite sure what she means, maybe taking up more shifts at the café, but he doesn’t bother pressing the matter. A seagull flies nearby and starts screaming at Gavin. He leans into Elyse to escape from the bird, holding his doughnuts protectively and trying to keep the bird at bay. Elyse laughs at him and gives him zero help.

* * *

Meg finds Gavin hunching over his laptop, tapping furiously with a concentrated expression on his face. Meg knows that face, that’s the face he pulls when people refer to him as Golden Boy. It means crew business. She wanders closer and peers over his shoulder, spotting a number of camera feeds and what appears to be a list of binary code in the corner of the page. A familiar skull mask appears on screen and Meg smiles.

“They doing okay?” Gavin nods and lets out a small noncommittal hum. “Why didn’t you go along with them this time?”

“Stealth mission. I’m not good at stealth.”

Meg quirks an eyebrow, “Did Michael go? He’s not very good at being quiet either.”

“No, he and Lindsay went out for food. Should be enough for everyone when they get back.”

Meg hums and nods, watching as Geoff all but leaps into the back of their getaway car and ends up with his legs sticking out the window as the engine starts and they drive off. Gavin switches cameras and spots Ray running down an alleyway before getting on a motorbike with Vagabond and slipping out of sight down the street. Gavin’s shoulders drop and he eases back in his seat, a pleased smile on his face.

Meg pats a hand on his shoulder. “Good job. Oh! I need your opinion actually.” He makes an inquisitive noise, turning in his chair to look at Meg. “I just bought a new outfit to wear for my next photoshoot, but I’m not sure if I should wear that one or- you remember the grey and white striped bra with purple trimming? Yeah, either that or the new stuff I got.”

Gavin snickers and tilts a head, “What, you want to _model_ for me?”

“Wouldn’t be the first time. Besides, we still have at least half an hour before Geoff deems it safe enough to return without police on their asses.”

He ends up shrugging and giving a small nod, “Yeah, sure, don’t see why not. Why does it matter that much though? You’re just going to kill some guy in it, it doesn’t matter how good your outfit is, you’re gonna look great anyways.”

“Sap,” Meg says with a fond quirk of her lips. Gavin just makes shooing motions at her and turns back to his computer, shutting down applications and locking it. Meg slips away and back to their shared room. She pulls out a bag hiding at the back of the closet and retrieves the matching set of clothes from within.

Gavin’s not left waiting long. He abandons his seat at the table in favour of dropping onto the couch with his phone in hand.

Keys jingle and Gavin perks up as the front door opens. Michael holds a bag aloft over his head, “Food’s here, bitches!” Lindsay trails behind him with another bag in hand and shuts the door. Gavin stands up and moves his laptop off of the table, making space for the food to be placed down and laid out.

“Gavin.” Although it’s not their names being said, both Lindsay and Michael turn to see who’s talking, only to freeze upon spotting Meg. She rests a hand on her hip and cocks it to the side, red nails contrasting with the black fabric and her toned skin. Meg untucks a couple strands of red hair from the collar around her neck and asks, “How’s this look?”

Michael snaps his gaze away quickly.

Gavin just smiles fondly, “Whoever’s photographing you is lucky.”

“Good, because they won’t be living for longer than a few minutes after I meet them. Wanna know why?”

Michael bumps Lindsay, who is still staring with wide eyes and a severely reddened face. “Linds, what the shit?”

Lindsay, having been knocked into realizing she wasn’t saying anything, simply standing there staring at Meg as she gives a small twirl, clears her throat and gives a couple claps of her hands. Meg grins at her and Michael in response. “You look great, love the cat ears,” Lindsay announces before wiping a hand across her cheek, “Uh, ‘scuse me, I need to go change.”

She walks past Meg briskly, staring at the back of her hand, and slips into her and Michael’s shared bedroom, the door shutting behind her. Michael watches her go and rolls his eyes. Gavin quirks an eyebrow and looks over at Michael for an explanation, but the man pointedly turns away and focuses on unpacking the containers of takeaway.

“Is Lindsay okay?” Gavin asks, looking between Michael and Meg. Meg simply shrugs and brushes down the patterned fabric hugging her hips and upper thighs. She slides a hand along the inside of her left leg and quickly retrieves a miniature pistol from within, wandering closer to set it down on the table. A frown comes to her face when she reaches a hand over her shoulder.

“Dammit… Gavin, can you switch the blade in my back pockets from the right to the left? I don’t want to grab it with my non-dominant hand.” She turns around and Gavin steps closer, quickly doing as she says so. With that done, Meg tests it out a couple times, withdrawing and sheathing the weapon, before finally seeming satisfied and stepping backwards. “So, this one,”  as she says it, she gives another small twirl to show it off, “Or the other outfit?”

“This one, definitely,” he responds with certainty. Meg grins and looks over at Michael, who seems to be struggling with opening the bag of prawn crackers.

“Michael, does this look good? Headband or no headband?”

He ends up spilling three on the table’s surface when he finally gets the bag open. Michael turns to look at Meg’s face, eyes not daring to stray lower. “Yes, great, you look amazing, keep the headband. Now can you _please_ go put some clothes on?” Although she laughs at him like he’s a petulant child not getting his way, Meg gives in and nods. She wiggles her fingers at Gavin and turns to saunter her way back down the hall. As soon as the bedroom door shuts behind her, Michael turns on Gavin. “What’re you doing? What’s _she_ doing? I told you we were coming back soon! That does _not_ mean get your girlfriend dressed up in sexy outfits and have her come sauntering out here!”

Gavin just chuckles, “But that’s what she does, boi! She works in outfits like that. Wot, you don’t like it?”

“No, that’s not it,” Michael says with a groan, shaking his head, “Don’t worry, doesn’t matter, it’s all fine now.”

“But is Lindsay okay?”

“Yes, she’s fine.”

Gavin gives him a dubious look, “Are you sure? Did she not like Meg’s outfit?”

“No! No, no, that’s not it; she loves it, dude, Meg looks great.”

“Good! She always looks bloody gorgeous anyways.”

“Mhm, okay, yep.”

* * *

Gavin grabs a man by the elbow outside the café one day and passes him two hundred dollar bills. He points at the blonde cashier inside the shop and says to slide one of the bills into the tip jar and he can keep the other hundred for himself. When asked if the man can keep both notes, Gavin subtly shows off his pistol hanging from his side and says he can either keep one or neither and lose his life too.

Gavin receives a text ten minutes later from an excited Elyse who says she can’t wait to tell him a cool story about what happened at work that day.

* * *

The way Gavin views gold is the way a crow sees shiny objects. It’s a fascination and display of pride, gathering and collecting things that catch interest and showing them off as much as possible to intimidate others. The only reason he doesn’t show off around Elyse is the worry that he’ll scare her away. Or worse; she’ll think differently of him and treat him like a stranger.

But those thoughts don’t quell the soft thrum of excitement he gets when he walks into a store filled to the brim with knick-knacks, odd emerald-encrusted headwear hanging from the walls and the scent of candles clogging his nose. He skims his fingers along the items, pausing at the bangles he finds and flicking a finger to make them clink.

What catches his attention though is a gold-rimmed hairpin in the shape of a flower, curving and intricately coloured ceramic petals spiralling out from a bejewelled center. Gavin steps closer to peer at it. Something nags at the back of his head that it would look great in Jack’s hair and it would go well with one of her favourite shirts too. The man behind the cash register doesn’t appear to be paying him much attention, so with his borrowed hoodie covering his face, Gavin reaches out to the display stand and picks it up. The pink and white pattern on the petals are seem so delicate with how thin it is as he holds it aloft to eye-level for a close up inspection.

And then slips it into his back pocket.

“Hey!”

The hair on the back of Gavin’s neck stands up.

“Oh bloody-”

“Put that back!”

Gavin barely gives the worker a glance before he spins on his heels and runs from the store, not daring to look back. He hears footsteps behind him and the man shouting out some more, but he doesn’t stop. He gets to the other end of the mall and figures the security guards are going to be on his case any moment now. Gavin skids around a corner and almost runs into someone, already raising his hands up to apologise for being in their way.

“Gavin?”

His eyes widen and he squeaks without meaning to as he says, “Elyse?” She blinks at him with wide, startled eyes, glancing over her shoulder at something. The shouting from behind him gets louder and Gavin tugs off his hoodie, letting slip a small laugh. “Haha, hello love! I was just taking a jog, funny seeing you here.”

Elyse nods and pulls off her hat, taking her hair out of its ponytail with a nervous smile on her face. “Same to you. What’s all that noise?”

“I don’t know,” he lies without thought, shuffling to the side and out of other shoppers’ way. He subtly leans his left arm against a rack of clothes and, when he sees Elyse glance over her shoulder again, drops his jacket to the floor.

Elyse tucks her hat into her bag and looks back at Gavin. He spots something green and DVD-looking sticking out of Elyse’s bag but it’s quickly tucked back into hiding and zipped up. “What were you doing running in the shopping centre?”

“Well, it’s air conditioned in here, unlike outside.” She seems quick to accept that response. Gavin hides the small tremor in his hands, fuelled by the underlying fear of being caught, when the echo of a radio comes up behind him and a man in uniform steps closer to the two.

“Are you two here by yourselves?” he questions, eyes squinted.

Gavin’s chest contracts and he feels the air flee from his lungs, his mouth struggling to form words. The guard looks at him scrutinisingly and something seems to spark in his eyes, like a final puzzle piece falling into place. Only then Elyse walks closer and quickly smiles at the security guard as she hooks her arm with Gavin’s. “Oh, no, we’re here together. Why? Are you looking for someone?”

He shifts his attention to Elyse, but the man still looks wary, judgemental and cautious. “Two people in fact, a man and a women have been reported stealing from two stores in the shopping centre. Have you seen anyone acting suspiciously recently? Maybe running?”

Gavin swallows and shakes his head, “No, sorry, I was just jogging but I didn’t see anyone running.”

“I saw a girl running back that way a minute ago,” Elyse says, pointing a hand down the way she had just come, “She was heading towards the east exit I think.”

Although the man looks at them both with a dubious expression for a painfully long second, he quickly puts back on his mask of composure and nods, “Thank you for your help. Have a good day.”

“You too,” Gavin responds instinctively, Elyse giving him a tight-lipped smile and wave of her hand as he departs and heads in the direction Elyse had pointed him in. Gavin releases a breath of air, laughing softly as Elyse steps back from him. “God, what was that? We’re here together?”

“Well you heard what he said, if we _weren’t_ here together he’d probably suspect us of being that man and woman.” Gavin can’t help but nod in agreement, even if he knows he _is_ the thieving man. “Anyways, sorry but I’d probably never date you.”

“Same, sorry but it’s just weird! You’re a great friend and I like it like that.” Elyse nods and hums in agreement before spotting Gavin’s jacket on the floor and picking it up. Gavin thanks her when she hands it to him, and then asks if she’s ready to meet up at the park tomorrow.

“Yes, but I just need to pick up your surprise,” Elyse explains. Gavin bounces on his heels lightly, trying to dispel the nervous energy humming through him. “Are you excited?”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I be? Is it going to live up to my expectations?”

“Above and beyond. …maybe.”

“Maybe?”

“Probably.”

“Maybe or probably?”

“Both.”

Gavin squeaks softly. Elyse just snorts at his odd noises and smiles fondly. It’s the same look she has on her face when she thinks about or talks about her friends.

* * *

When Gavin finally gets back home after a day of chatter and an ice cream each, he presents the golden flower hair piece to Jack, which makes her smile appreciatively. Lindsay spots the gift and calls out _“Where’s mine, bitch?”_ to which Gavin just shrugs sheepishly and promises to get her something next time he shoplifts.

* * *

Gavin’s jaw drops when he meets Elyse at the park.

“Benson!”

Said dog perks up when he hears his name, head turning to stare at the stranger. Gavin rushes closer and Elyse smiles fondly. She releases her hold on Benson’s lead and allows the dog to wander towards Gavin as the man skids to a stop and crouches down, quickly petting the dog without hesitation.

“Aw, you’re so cute, yes you are, oh my god, auuuuuugh!” Elyse stands from the bench with two bags over her shoulder, the larger one unfamiliar to Gavin. He’s too distracted by petting the canine to bother asking Elyse about it, scratching behind Benson’s ears as he pants in Gavin’s face. Gavin chuckles when he receives a lick to his cheek, quickly wiping the slobber away. “Ack, gross, you’re adorable though, so handsome, hmm? Good boy.”

“Glad you like him,” Elyse says when she’s close enough. Benson sits down on the ground and turns his head into the pets, looking up at his owner happily. Gavin grins from his place kneeling on the ground and scratches along Benson’s chest. The dog ends up lying down and rolling onto his side, leaving Gavin cooing at him and rubbing his belly.

“He’s awesome, oh my god, I missed petting dogs.” Elyse chuckles every time Gavin makes an odd noise, which appears to be very often judging by the grin on her face. “Is he my surprise? It’s a wonderful surprise, I’ve always wanted to meet Benson after how much you talked about him. He’s even better than what I imagined.”

“You imagined meeting my dog?”

“Well, yeah! He sounded really cool and I didn’t know how to say I wanted to meet your dog without offending you.” He’s not really expecting Elyse to start laughing at him, but when she does Gavin doesn’t bother putting up a fuss. Especially when Benson rolls onto his side and pushes a paw against his leg. “Awwww, you’re such a good boy, aren’t you?”

“Benson’s not the only surprise I have in store for you actually.”

Gavin’s head snaps up quickly and Elyse places the larger carry bag on the ground. She gestures for Gavin to open it, and he crawls closer before catching his fingers on the zipper and pulling.

If Elyse keeps pulling stunts like this Gavin’s not sure how long he’s going to last before spontaneous combustion occurs.

* * *

Ray and Jack startle when Gavin slams the front door of the penthouse open and announces, “I’m in love!” Michael, although not initially surprised, quickly spins around in his spot on the couch to openly gape at him.

“Dude, what the fuck? What the _actual fuck?_ ” Ray blinks slowly from his corner of the room, having paused his game to watch how this shit show unfolds. Gavin just grins wider and giggles, but that only serves to make Michael’s face turn redder and to grind his teeth together when he next asks, “What about _Meg?_ ”

“What about me?” The room’s attention quickly shifts over to Meg as she walks into the room, her suitcase in hand and wheeling along the ground. She pushes her sunglasses to the top of her head and Gavin giggles even more.

“You’ve been replaced,” he states wandering over to the dining room. Meg quirks an eyebrow and stands her suitcase up in favour of crossing her arms and looking at Gavin curiously.

“Oh? Who by?”

“The fuck do you mean _‘who by’_?” Michael seethes, only for Jack to hush him. “Kinda obvious.”

Gavin sets down his bag on the table and announces proudly, “Smee!”

“Smee?” the room’s occupants echo curiously.

“Who’s Smee?” Ray calls out. Gavin raps his fingers against the table a couple times before he finally opens up the bag and reaches inside.

When he spins back around, he’s got a small kitten curled up in his hands, pressing against his chest, and Gavin says again, “Smee!”

“Oh my god,” Meg abandons her suitcase and quickly rushes forward towards Gavin and his new _‘Smee’_ , “I don’t even care if I’ve been replaced by Smee as your favourite, we have a fucking kitten now, oh my god.” Gavin resumes giggling and leaves Michael staring with wide eyes, glancing over at Jack and Ray for help. Jack simply shrugs and Ray actually sets aside his DS in favour of wandering closer to get a better look at the cat. “He’s adorable, oh wow, what a cutie.”

“Isn’t that a Siamese cat?” Jack questions, leaning to get a better look at the kitten. Smee mewls and Gavin coos at the soft noise. “Those are special and expensive, Gavin. You better have thanked her a lot, because that’s not just a simple stray cat from the street.”

“Really?”

Ray leans in closer and reaches out to pet the small kitten on the head. It leans into his touch and meows again, causing Gavin to devolve into a pile of indecipherable noises. “Will Geoff care?” Ray questions, looking over at Jack.

Jack shrugs and says, “Well, I don’t think he can deny something as cute as that now that he’s already been given to Gavin. Smee, right?”

“Yep, his name’s Smee and he is my favourite.”

“Mine too,” Meg adds on.

“Yeah, but he loves me most.”

“He won’t after I spoil him rotten with treats and affection.”

“You’re not even here half the time! You’re just about to fly out to kill some guy in Russia!”

“Can I have him on weekends and every second Wednesday?”

“What? No! Saturday is football practice day!”

Michael huffs. “Gavin, stop fucking around. Meg, you’re going to miss your plane if you wait any longer. We have to go meet FakeHaus in an hour, in case you forgot.” Judging by the startled expression that crosses Gavin’s face, yes, he did in fact forget. Michael heaves a sigh and slumps down in his seat. “Whatever. Safe trip, Meg, I’ll try to make sure your boyfriend doesn’t accidentally shoot his head off or something equally dumb.”

“Thank you, Michael.”

“Oi! I can look after myself perfectly fine, thank you very much.”

That only ends in Gavin pouting and carrying Smee to his bedroom while the others laugh raucously behind him.

* * *

“They’re late,” Geoff huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. The warehouse is completely abandoned, lifeless and empty, aside from the crew. Jack shifts beside him, glancing at the numerous entrances warily, like she expects the doors to burst open, a dozen police officers to walk in, and light them up. Gavin’s lazily hanging back, and when he catches eyes with Ryan, makes a pawing motion with his hand. The other masked man visibly rolls his eyes and returns to adjusting his gun, ensuring the ammunition within it was prepped.

Ray’s clambered his way atop a shipping container, his sniper rifle sitting beside him and DS in his hands, sound effects coming from its speakers with every press of a button. Jeremy’s waiting beneath him, leaning against the container nonchalantly and waiting for the other crew to arrive.

“Maybe the weather got them,” Jack suggests, listening to the thunder booming overhead and rain drumming against the tin roof.

Fifteen minutes past the set meeting time, the door on the other side of the warehouse finally opens and a number of silhouettes filter into the room. Michael grumbles from Gavin’s right, “ _Finally_ , assholes.” Gavin watches them all curiously, taking note of how many people filter into the room. He’s a little surprised when he counts more than the typical eight heads, a ninth hovering in the background, in the darkness. He hears the jingle of jewellery beneath the shuffling of feet.

Whoever it is doesn’t go unnoticed by Geoff, who leans to the side to try and get a closer look at them. “Who’s your friend, FakeHaus? A fan?”

“No,” Willems snorts, “An official member of the crew. We wanted to show her off to you.” Gavin quirks an eyebrow. A woman? Women in the criminal career are rare enough as it is, they’re lucky Geoff and Jack are such good friends and she joined their crew instead of someone else’s or going solo. Now they find out FakeHaus has a girl too? No fair.

Then she steps forward into the light.

Gavin feels like his lungs have forgotten how to work.

_Elyse._

* * *

“Elyse Whitmire,” the man speaks, shuffling profile backgrounds and spreading the papers out in front of him, “What is your job?”

“I work at the café down the road, on the corner street beside the news agency,” Elyse responds without hesitation. The man opposite her regards the woman dubiously, tapping a finger on one of her pictures before sliding the files into a folder and retrieving the second folder.

“Where were you two days ago, at ten thirty in the morning?” As he speaks, he opens the new folder but raises it to hide the contents from Elyse. She shifts in the metal seat uncomfortably, crossing her arm over the steel table and resting her head in a palm.

“At work, serving coffees.”

“Are you positive, Miss Whitmire?” he questions, holding her gaze. Elyse gives him a small smile and nods. He places down the folder and slides a couple pictures towards her. “So you’ve never seen these men before in your life?”

Elyse twitches, staring down at the faces of her crew members. The action goes unnoticed however and Elyse leans in closer to peer at the images. “Oh, yeah, I have! Aren’t those the criminals in a gang or something?”

“They were also the robbers that held you hostage on February the 19th when you visited the South Bank,” the Detective reminds, retrieving his notepad and scribbling down a couple notes. “Is there anything you can tell me about these men?”

“I don’t know what to say, officer,” she leans back in her seat and taps at one of the images portraying a bespectacled shaven man, “This guy held a gun to my head and said I needed to shut up and not make a sound or move a muscle. I haven’t seen them since then, if that’s what you’re referring to.”

The Detective sighs and pulls off his own pair of frames, hanging them from his hand as he crowds in closer from the other side of the table, his close proximity putting Elyse off. “Miss Whitmire- Elyse, may I call you Elyse? Do you understand how bad this situation is currently? You have an alibi, you have your boss vouching for you and even coworkers. But there is security footage – however blurry – that shows you were at the convenience store that was robbed on Tuesday morning.” As he says this, he retrieves another image and slides it onto the table’s surface.

Sure enough, it shows a picture of a blonde woman wearing a baseball cap holding her hands up as a convenience store was being robbed. The woman’s similarities to Elyse is fairly convincing, but only half of her face is visible.

“Whoa, who’s that?” she questions, jabbing a finger at her.

The Detective’s frown deepens. “Are you saying that isn’t you? Did you not purchase a chocolate bar that day from that exact store at the time indicated?”

“No. I’ve been in there before, sure, but I was at work on Tuesday. My boss already told you I was working. I’ve only ever met these guys once before, and that was pure accident.”

The man sighs heavily, dragging the pictures closer and replacing them within its designated folder. Once everything was suitably in place, he stands from the table and collects his notepad and pen under his arm. “Thank you for your honesty, Elyse. We’ll be keeping in touch and possibly pay you visits at work. You’re free to go now.” She smiles and stands up, moving towards the door.

Once she exits the interrogation room, Elyse directs herself towards the police station exit and leaves the building without anyone paying her more attention than a fleeting glance. She can hear sirens in the distance and smiles, heading in the opposite direction. She pulls her phone out and quickly sends a text.

**Meme Queen** **_  
_ ** **_‘Just left the station, come pick me up?’_ **

She turns on the GPS on her phone and pockets it, continuing to walk down the road. She makes sure to keep close to the road, side stepping pedestrians as she goes.

Not even ten minutes later, she hears a familiar engine drawing closer. Elyse glances over her shoulder and stops as a car pulls up alongside the footpath and the back door opens for her. Peering inside, she finds Adam grinning back at her. He drags her into a hug as soon as she sits down and shuts the door.

“Glad to have you back! We didn’t know how long it would be before they released you.”

“Yeah,” Bruce says, nodding in agreement, “We already agreed on a new girl to hire to replace you, we need our token female in this crew and you’re letting us down, Elyse! I’m gonna have to let you go.”

Elyse shrugs Adam off and can’t help the small smile on her lips. She turns to the front of the car to say something witty in reply, only for James to lean over and press a kiss to her forehead. Bruce chuckles from behind the driver’s wheel as Elyse makes a show of wiping her husband’s slobber off her skin. “Wow, damn, but what if I befriend the new girl and steal her away from you? Don’t you remember I’m actually a lesbian and James is my beard? Anyways, it wasn’t that hard, I had some Detective asking me questions. Wanted to know if I’d seen you guys before, that kinda thing. Nothing we didn’t expect, but I might have to work at the café for a couple weeks to keep the police off my back.”

James pulls a face but settles in his seat backwards, facing Elyse as Bruce drives them back to base. “Aw, does that mean we can’t use you in heists?”

“You better not be heisting without me,” Elyse says.

Adam holds his hands up, “Oh no, we would _never_ do that to you!” Elyse leans back in her seat with a smile.

“We paid off the owner and the staff,” Bruce announces from the front of the vehicle, looking at Elyse in the rear view mirror, “They’ve been told to lie and say they’ve known you for four months and that you’re always at work, you haven’t taken a single sick day off. Do you even know how to make coffee?”

“Nope. But how hard can it be? I’ll get them to teach me on the spot.”

* * *

“So, how was work?” Lawrence questions, “Did you finally meet your Swedish Prince, finally here to sweep you off your feet?” Elyse shuts the door gently behind herself and settles into the passenger seat with a sigh.

“If only, there was just some dumb Italian guy who didn’t know the difference between black and white coffee. But it was good actually.” Lawrence quirks an eyebrow at her. “Had someone treat me like an actual human being rather than a servant.”

“Yeah?” The engine roars as they take off down the road, veering between other vehicles and sliding through red lights. “Who was it?” He pauses to gasp and glance at her, “Are you eloping with the Italian idiot who gave you promises of money and a big house because of his inheritance? Did he have a tantrum when you said no?”

Elyse can’t help the chuckle that escapes her as she shakes her head. “No, no, none of that, I wish. It was just some IT guy. He was-”

“Eloping with an IT guy! How scandalous!”

“-interesting though, and polite, and goddammit Lawrence! I gave him a marshmallow, I hope he likes it and I didn’t ruin his drink for him.”

Lawrence lets slip a small bark of laughter, “Who doesn’t like marshmallows? You’ll be fine.” Elyse nods in agreement and reaches into the back seat. She drags a backpack into her lap and smiles with excitement when she pulls out a jacket and hat, quickly placing the latter on her head. “So, you ready for our next hit?”

“Store by the monument down south, right? Let’s do it.”

By the time they arrive, the chill of the night’s set in and Elyse hurries to pull her jacket on, abandoning the backpack in the car. Lawrence gives her a wave and drives off, leaving Elyse to walk down the street. Her boots click on the pavement and she holds her handbag close to her side, sliding her right hand into it. She can spot her target up ahead, the store’s lights spilling out onto the road, moths swirling around the light above the door.

She makes to walk past an alleyway, only for a wolf whistle to catch her attention. She hesitates and looks into the darkness, spotting three men nearby, one sitting down and the smaller of the trio approaching her at a confident saunter.

“Hey, gorgeous,” he says with a slight lilt in his voice, leaning to the side and looking her up and down. Elyse grimaces and makes to continue walking, only for a hand to quickly wrap around her bicep. “Where you goin-”

The man doesn’t even finish his sentence, because Elyse’s arm automatically withdraws from her handbag and wields her knife at the man, the sharp blade shimmering in the night light. Even if he smells intoxicated, at least the man has enough sense to quickly hold his hands up and retreat.

“Whoa, okay, you keep goin’ on your way then, Missy.”

“Yeah, bye,” she replies curtly, quickly continuing towards the store, the small knife held close by her side. Judging by the lack of footsteps behind her, Elyse assumes he’s not following and tucks her knife away into her handbag. She brushes past a car with tinted windows, a song playing from within it at a low volume. The car honks and Elyse turns to glower back at it; assholes are supposed to  _not_ attract attention, not _attract_ it.

When she enters the store, the man behind the counter barely casts her a glance before busying himself with his phone. Elyse wanders over to the magazine rack and crouches down, running her hand over the titles and headlines. The refrigerators in the corner thrum with electricity and she can hear the heater on the other side of the room struggling to work, clanking every few seconds or so. Her eyes catch on a reflective piece of steel and she sees something in the shape of a shotgun hidden under the counter. Elyse picks up some celebrity gossip magazine and flicks through a couple pages, not bothering to read the text but pretending to look interested in the stories on who’s knocked up, who’s getting a divorce, the usual celebrity gossip.

The door of the store slams open so violently that Elyse jumps and the worker drops his phone on the counter. When she looks over at the door, she spots Joel wielding his gun, quickly approaching the cash register.

“Get all the money out and put it in a bag!” he shouts, Spoole quickly rushing up behind him to re-enforce the command and to threaten Elyse.

“You, down, on your knees!” Elyse’s eyes widen with faux fear and she raises her hands above her head, dropping the magazine and falling to the ground. She hears the cash register opening and the man shoving bills and coins into a plastic bag, shying away from Joel’s gaze.

“Hurry up, I haven’t got all day.” Elyse remembers the shotgun behind the counter. She coughs. Joel’s eyes glance to her, a small flicker of a movement, Elyse clears her throat and bows her head. Joel tightens his grip on his gun and aims it at the man’s head. “If you try anything funny, I’ll shoot your head off!” Elyse notices the small defeated look on the man’s face and hides her smile, looking at the floor. She spots Spoole’s shadow drift to the right and the man whistles softly at something.

After another minute of rummaging and shuffling about, Joel starts backing up, Spoole hightailing it out of the shop. Joel keeps his eyes on the man, firearm poised and ready to shoot, aware that he has a gun nearby and within reach. Elyse holds her breath, barely glancing at the two until they slip out of the shop entirely. The cashier lets out a sigh of relief and pulls out a phone, quickly dialling in a number.

Elyse runs out of the door as quickly as possible. She spots the car with the tinted windows pulling away from the side of the road and quickly heads in the opposite direction. She takes a left and a right before sneaking down a narrow pathway. She ends up in a parking lot, almost abandoned aside from a black sport scar. Elyse glances around the lot, and when she fails to spot a camera, jogs over to the car. The passenger door is unlocked and she slips into the seat with ease.

Matt smiles at her, “Good job, Joel called to say we got a good two grand out of there.”

“Anything for a day’s hard work,” Elyse responds with a smile, winding down the window and sticking her head out as the wind pushes her hair back and makes her eyes tear up.

* * *

“What’re _you_ smiling about?” Joel asks from the table to her left. Elyse tosses her bag onto the couch, barely missing Adam with it and startling Omar into almost falling off.

“That same person came in again today, Gavin something. Great guy to talk to, made my day.” She opens the fridge and pulls out a bowl set aside for her, placing it in the microwave and nuking it. “He tipped me again and chatted with me some, good fun to talk to and relax with. Need to grab his number next time.”

Bruce smacks his hands on the table and leans back with a scandalised gasp. “ _Elyse!_ Are you _cheating_ on _James?_ ” The man in question grunts at the mention of his name, barely glancing at Elyse and Bruce from his place beside Adam, continuing to smash buttons on his controller, hunching forward as he focuses intently on the television.

“Yep, sorry, bye James.”

“What? Dammit, Omar, take over for me.” He shoves the controller into Omar’s hands, surprising the man for a second. James looks over at Elyse and leans back in his seat. “Hi honey, how was your day of non-killing?” he asks, mock sweetness.

“You don’t know that, maybe one of my customers choked on their coffee and died. Also, I’m leaving you for the British guy who talks to me at work. A real coffee shop cliché right there.” Joel perks up a little, pursing his lips in thought, but remains silent for now.

James leans back and holds a hand over his chest, looking as offended as he possibly can. “I thought we had something _special!_ And now you- you throw it all away for some… some _whore!_ ” Elyse can’t help herself; a smile comes to her face and she finds a plastic fork hiding behind the tomato sauce for some reason. James drops the act and leans back on the couch, lazily draping an arm around Adam and distracting the other man from his game. “For real though, how’d work go? Also, British huh?”

“Yep. I’m making friends with people,” Elyse summarises, grabbing out her food once it’s finished heating up. “He’s great, nice guy, like talking to him.”

“Likes thinking about…” Bruce trails off and makes salacious noises with his mouth. Matt and Lawrence crack up beside Joel, the three of them crowding around the table for planning and Bruce hovering behind them.

Elyse simply rolls her eyes but wanders over to join the crew, peering at Lawrence’s laptop screen curiously. “We planning our next heist?” she questions.

Joel’s face lights up and he nods. “Oh yeah, a jewellery store, gonna be a big hit too!”

“Well what’re you waiting for?” Elyse says around a mouthful of mashed potato, jabbing her fork towards the map in Matt’s hands, “Lay it on me!”

* * *

Elyse hums to herself as she works, checking the clock repeatedly and keeping an ear out. She’s taught herself that she’ll hear FakeHaus coming before she sees them, and she doubts today will be any different. Her coworker arrived more than an hour late, but at least he arrived, meaning she can leave without worrying about abandoning the café and leaving it unattended.

She smiles and hands over change to one of the customers, sighing and leaning against the counter. The steam wand hisses and Elyse retrieves a bag of coffee beans, setting it beside the grinder.

Then she hears the tell-tale car horn coming from outside. Elyse grins and pulls off her half-apron, tossing it at her coworker. “I’m off, you’re on the register.” Although displeased by her abandoning him, he doesn’t voice his complaints and simply finishes off making the drink and takes her place. Elyse meanwhile bounds out of the shop with a skip in her step right as a sports car pulls up alongside her. She hops inside and smiles appreciatively at Omar. “Thanks for picking me up.”

“No problem,” he responds automatically, revving the engine and taking off down the road. Elyse once again pulls out a backpack from behind her and finds a hair tie inside the bag. She pulls her hair back into a ponytail before sliding the baseball cap on, hair fitting through the hole at the back neatly. The car darts between a white van and rounds a corner before coming to a stop a couple streets down from their designated hit. “The crew’s a few minutes out, I’ll be waiting here for your return. You got your phone?”

Elyse pats her pants pocket and nods. “Yep. See you soon.”

No one pays her much attention when she leaves the car and walks down the road, pulling her handbag over her shoulder and sliding her phone into it. They know there’s at least two security cameras in the place, Elyse just needs to find a spot to stand where they can’t see her. She wonders if they have an emergency fire alarm system nearby and quickly runs through her signals. Cough for guns or weapons, itchy nose for security or fire alarms, tapping foot for guards or armed civilians, and sneeze for get the fuck out right now. She always clears her throat afterwards so they know it was intentional and she doesn’t have a cold and it was coincidence.

For now though, she plays up the _‘I ♡ LS’_ hat and looks around at the buildings and shops eagerly, just like an average tourist would. She rounds a corner and hears a car engine in the distance behind her. She doesn’t pay it much attention, not even noticing the man approaching her.

She feels herself being pulled to the side and her hand flicks towards her bag where her knife is “Hey, jerk!” Elyse yanks her arm free and curls it up into a ball, preparing to punch the stranger. Only then she looks at the man’s face, at  his scruffy jaw, the shades, and tanned skin. “Gavin?”

All she can think is, shit, she needs to call off the heist.

* * *

“What the _fuck_ , Elyse?!” Elyse purses her lips and ducks away from Bruce, making her way towards the empty space on the couch instead. “What even happened? Who told you and how did the Fakes know we were going to hit there?”

“That guy I talk to, Gavin, he just bumped into me and said to not go down there because the jewellery store was just robbed. He’s never lied to me before, so why would he now? He’s just being a good friend.” She drops down onto the couch beside a pouting James, Matt on her other side with his phone in hand.

Lawrence clears his throat, “Uh, I know how they found out we were hitting the store.”

“How?” Bruce asks, hurrying over to Lawrence’s side. The man points at his computer screen, at something Elyse can’t see, and Bruce’s head snaps over to Spoole. “Spoole! What the fuck, man? You put _all_ of our documents and plans on _Google Drive? ARE YOU KIDDING ME?_ ”

Spoole raises his hands in surrender, leaning against the bar counter behind him. “Hey, I thought it would make things easier! Plus, I wanted to look over it myself and you’re always telling me to not put important information on USBs in case I lose them.”

“And you thought putting them on the _internet_ was a _better_ _idea?_ ” Elyse snorts at the sheepish grin on Spoole’s face, even as Bruce groans, turns to the wall beside him, and slams his head into it for dramatic effect. “This fucking crew, oh my god.” Joel stands up, passes by Lawrence, makes his way over to Bruce, and pats his shoulder comfortingly.

“There there, it’s okay. Hey, Lawrence, did you tell Bruce the _good_ news at least?”

“I need all the good news you can give me,” Bruce groans.

Lawrence nods, “Well, remember our lovely ammunition supplier and how he skipped out on us this week because he has previous arrangements with someone else, most likely the Fakes? We can track them down and find out ourselves, maybe get a clue in on what kind of deal he’s making with them so we can prepare.”

James lets out a snort from the other side of the room, “While that sounds like an _excellent_ idea, you’re forgetting that he knows our faces.”

Omar nods in agreement, resting his elbows on the table and pressing his thumbs to his chin in thought. He seems to get an idea then and perks up. “He doesn’t know _Elyse’s_ face though.”

The room turns their attention towards said woman, Elyse hesitating before holding her hands up. “What? Yeah, sure, I’ll do it. …what do I have to do again?”

“We need you to just stalk our supplier guy for a bit and then give us a heads up on who’s there. You know what the Fakes look like, don’t you?”

That makes Elyse snort and nod. “Well, yeah, I know all their faces – except for Vagabond and their frontman.”

“Eh, James- oopsies, I mean, _Vagabond_ , is easily recognisable with his mask on. And you’ll know Vav when you see him; arrogant English fuck. Maybe you can get the drop on him when you meet and find out who he really is.”

Something seems to spark in Joel's mind and his head snaps up, looking at Elyse with an eyebrow quirked, “The guy you’re talking to, British right?”

“Yeah? How’s that relevant?”

Joel turns to look at the rest of the crew before implying, “Y’know who else is British?” Bruce and James stiffen up, the former frowning and looking over at Elyse.

“Vav of course, the frontman.”

Elyse blinks slowly before snorting and waving a hand dismissively. “What’re the chances? One in a million. As if.”

“Well, you never know.”

“Let me put it this way;” she begins, clearing her throat and looking at them with a blank, hard-set face, “He first walked in wearing neon sunglasses and a shirt saying People Like Grapes. He’s ridiculous and not at all what the frontman of the FAHC would be like.”

“Could’ve dressed differently to fool you,” Adam says with a shrug, not much heart in his words. Matt pulls the corners of his mouth down and raises his eyebrows as he shrugs then nods in agreement.

“He tips me every day, smiles at me, and talks to me like a normal person. He also bought me this,” she holds her wrist up and jingles the bracelet on it, catching their attention, “From the jewellery store right before he was held hostage  _by_ the Fake AH Crew. He seems to actually care about my well-being, actually knows IT stuff, and judging by all the dumb shit he’s done? It doesn’t add up!”

That catches Spoole’s attention, “What dumb stuff?”

A snort escapes Bruce who mumbles, “Of course _you’re_ the one to ask about that.” James' lips quirk at the corner and he glances at Bruce before refocusing on the conversation topic.

Elyse counts on each finger as she lists them off, “Caught a knife by the blade, hit himself in the face with a hair tie, fell down the stairs, said flick the bean instead of flip the bird–”

“Oh my god.”

“–he went on a swing while we were at the park and started trying to swing all the way around it. Didn’t end well; grazed his knees, elbows, hands, and even bit his tongue. Doesn’t seem like something the frontman from the FAHC would do.”

Lawrence frowns at her but nods slowly, “Sounds like an idiot.”

“Hey, that’s my friend you’re talking about,” Elyse retorts, lips curving into a smile.

“Elyse, you’re surrounded by idiots.”

“…you got me there.”

“Anyways! We need you to follow our special friend for a while, think you’re up for it?”

“Me? Do work? In a crew?” She lets out an exaggerated scoff, resting a hand over her chest as she continues. ”But I’m just a weak, inferior woman! Can’t one of you big, strong, intelligent men do it?”

“Nah, too busy flexing.” James strikes a pose which Bruce is quick to replicate as Sean and Omar both go back-to-back and show off. Elyse snickers along with Lawrence. Adam sighs and shakes his head, only for Joel to elbow his side repeatedly. Adam, seemingly irritated by the repetitive annoyance, wraps his arms around Joel’s middle and heaves him up over a shoulder. Startled by the sudden shift in position, Joel takes a second to realise Adam is carrying him out of the room. Matt shuffles out of the way without question, watching curiously.

“Whoa, hey, where you taking me? The flexing is happening over there!” Joel points at the group of giggling men and one woman who watch him be taken away and down the hall without a single ounce of sympathy.

“Time for beddy-byes,” Adam says.

Joel’s head snaps up and he looks over Adam’s shoulder with gaping eyes before stage-whispering, “I need an adult!”

Elyse cracks up at the same time the rest of the crew does, her face hurting with how wide she’s grinning. It takes them a solid five minutes before they’re able to calm down enough to go rescue Joel from Adam before he gets smothered with a pillow.

* * *

Elyse frowns down at her phone screen, trying to track down where the second signal is and navigating her way along the street. She’s not really paying much attention to where she walks; no one’s out this late at night, no one aside from the occasional dumb idiot or mugger. Nothing she can’t handle with her trusty knife and pistol tucked inside her bag.

The GPS signal moves and Elyse continues to trail after it. Her phone buzzes, a text from Adam, and Elyse clicks on the notification.

**Baby Boy**   
**_‘Hurry, only a few minutes until he makes the deal! We need to know if it’s Fakes or not.’_ **

She rolls her eyes and quickly types back.

**Meme Queen** **_  
_ ** **_‘I’m right behind him, don’t worry, I’ll tell you who I see.’_ **

That done, she returns to the map and rounds another corner. The dot comes to a stop just down the alleyway ahead and to her left. Elyse crosses the road and pockets her phone, slowing down her pace to a more casual walk.

When Elyse finally reaches the alleyway and glances down, she’s a little surprised by what she sees; that’s definitely their supplier, judging by the pictures her crew showed her of the scraggly man. He’s meeting with three men, one she clearly recognises as Rimmy Tim, judging by his dyed hair. The taller man beside him is wearing his hat and what appears to be Mogar’s jacket, according to the wolf design on the back of it. Elyse can only assume it’s Mogar crouching down rifling through a bag.

Then the man turns his head to the side and locks eyes with her, scowling. “The fuck you looking at, bitch?” Elyse startles when all eyes turn to her. She can’t see the unknown man’s face beneath the shadows cast by Rimmy Tim’s cowboy hat.

She quickly looks away and continues on her way down the road, letting out a shaky breath. Wow, that was close. What if they had decided to go after her simply because she was a witness? That thought in mind, Elyse quickly crosses to the other side of the road and keeps her hand in her handbag, feeling the familiar cold metal of her pistol under her fingertips.

So far so good; Elyse can’t hear any footsteps behind her. She does, however, spot two men up ahead crossing the road to her side. They don’t look like good news either. She switches out her gun for her phone, trying to look busy as she sends off another text to Adam.

**Meme Queen**   
**_‘L was right, definitely our friends, keep B posted’_ **

Elyse returns her phone to her handbag and contemplates pulling her gun out to scare the two men off. Only then she hears a voice call out from behind her, “Hey!”

Elyse whips her head around, spotting a familiar shades-clad man jogging his way down the road towards her. She contemplates whether or not it would be a good idea to let Gavin get closer only for the two men to rob them both, only for Elyse to pull her gun out and scare the two off, and possibly give Gavin a heart attack as to why she has a pistol in her handbag.

Then she does something dumb and grins at him with a wave of her hand. “Gav! Hey!”

God, she’s so fucked if those two guys don’t leave her alone.

* * *

“Can you see my gun?”

Elyse turns around to look at Lawrence, glancing him up and down as he turns in his seat. She shakes her head negative; “No, you look fine. You don’t trust the concealment pouches?”

“Not really, they’re tight as shit.” As if to make his point, Bruce returns to shifting the belt around his middle and fiddling with it.

“Tight, huh?” James says with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

Elyse leans over and lightly bats a hand at his thigh. “Sssshhhhhhhhhhhut up, you.”

“Help, abuse!”

James goes ignored by the others.

“Can they be any looser?” Adam whines.

“No, the guards will be able to see it if you make it any more obvious,” Joel chides, rolling his eyes and poking at Adam’s shoulder.

A sigh escapes Elyse and she pulls her handbag up on her shoulder. “You’ll be fine, don’t worry about it. There’s only going to be one maybe two guards. Besides, don’t you want to get back at the Fakes?” Bruce pulls a face but nods in agreement, dropping his hands and hauling his jacket further over his shoulders.

“Look, just walk in and blend in,” Matt advises, “Go sit down or wait in line, but interact with as few people as possible. Only Adam and I are going to be interacting with each other, the rest of you need to keep to yourselves and look busy.” They all nod in agreement and Lawrence finally parks just a street down from the bank.

“Bruce, you’re up first,” Joel says, waving at said man. Bruce nods and pulls open the van door, stepping out. He gives the finger over his shoulder as he goes, making Lawrence and Spoole chuckle from the front seats and return the gesture, even if Bruce isn’t looking their way. “Okay, Matt, Adam, you’re both next, you’ll be going in a minute’s time.”

“Do we have an escape plan if everything goes to shit?” Matt asks, double checking his pistol magazine is in place.

“Scream and run?” James suggests.

“I like it,” Spoole says, turning around in his seat to look at the others.

Elyse rolls her eyes and looks at Joel, “After you get my signals, feel free to start shooting up the place whenever you want, just don’t blow your cover until everyone’s ready.” There’s a couple noncommittal grunts from the rest of the crew and Elyse just slides back in her seat, waiting for her turn.

“Alright, time to go, have fun you two,” Joel announces, Adam gives them a little wave as he leaves the van, Matt walking behind him. “James, you’re next.”

“Then me, right?” Spoole asks.

“Yes, then Joel, then Elyse, me, and Omar.”

“Be sure to wait until we arrive before giving the signals so we know what’s up,” Omar says. Elyse nods and double checks that her pistol is loaded. A minute after James leaves, Spoole gets given the green light and he quickly hops out of his seat, Joel trailing a couple yards behind him as they walk towards the bank on the street corner up ahead.

“So…” Lawrence begins, turning in his seat to look at Omar and Elyse, “Anything new you guys wanna gossip about?”

“I caught Adam wearing one of my dresses yesterday,” Elyse says right off the bat. Lawrence slips in his seat and barely catches himself while Omar holds a hand to his mouth and laughs. “It was my _Elsa_ dress too. I swear I heard him singing _Let It Go_.”

“Oh my god, did you get a picture?”

“Sadly, no.”

Lawrence sighs and dramatically sinks down into his seat, “That’s no fun. We need proof so we can use it to lord over his head forever.”

The numbers on the radio clock change and Elyse hauls herself past Omar, “Excuse me, I have a bank to rob.”

“You don’t even do any of the robbing though,” he reasons as Elyse yanks the door open and steps out.

“You’d still be lost without me.”

Elyse shuts the door before either of the two can respond. No one pays her much attention as she walks down the street, bag on her shoulder. She brushes past a pet store and can’t help but peer inside curiously for a couple seconds before shaking herself out of it and focusing on the task at hand; cute puppies and kittens can wait.

When she pushes her way into the bank, Elyse makes sure she doesn’t look around noticeably, instead queueing up and awaiting Lawrence and Omar’s arrival.

She notices their appearances not even a minute later and quickly glances around. Elyse notices a single guard leaning against the far wall and starts tapping her foot. When a bright red light on the ceiling catches her attention, she raises a hand to itch her nose. With that sorted, Elyse keeps her eyes on the paintings hanging on the walls, pulling off the inconspicuous, innocent civilian easily. Now she just needs to wait for her crew to pull out their guns and then play along with the rest of the bank customers.

Only then a hand grabs hold of her elbow and tugs backwards. Elyse’s world tips and she almost falls over completely, hand reaching for her bag, for the gun sitting patiently inside. Then she spots her supposed assailant’s face and her muscles relax. Wait, shit, he’s _here_ , in the middle of a bank she and her crew are about to _rob_. Bruce is already staring at her curiously, wondering what’s going on; she’s not exactly keeping a low profile.

“What’re you doing, Gavin? I need to withdraw-” She’s cut off when she’s dragged into a hug. Although inconvenienced, she sighs and hugs him back.

This isn’t going to end well.

* * *

Elyse is anything but subtle when trying to be sneaky. She makes mistakes, she makes too much noise, and if she doesn’t know what to say she flubs up. Badly.

So it comes as no surprise that when she attempts to shoplift a Xbox game for Joel, the alarm goes off as she leaves the store and Elyse is left running from the sound of angry staff and someone calling for security. She knows that if she gets caught she’s definitely going to be in trouble with the police, and she can’t be dragged back in for another investigation; the less attention she draws to herself the safer the crew.

So she tugs off her jacket and sneaks through a clothing store, dropping it amongst the numerous racks. She contemplates taking off her hat but figures it’s best she waits a little longer in case a camera spots her doing it. She once more begins walking through the mall, briskly away from the store she had just stolen from.

And then someone rounds the corner sharply and almost bumps right into her, an apology already beginning to tumble from his lips when Elyse catches sight of his face.

“Gavin?”

The man’s eyes go comically wide and a squeak breaks off his apology. “Elyse?” She freezes for a couple seconds and glances around curiously, but finds no one chasing after her, even if she hears some disgruntled noises from the other end of the shopping center. Elyse casts a glance over her shoulder, but she can’t see any guards or cameras pointed her way. If she looks busy, maybe they’ll just walk by her? She looks back at Gavin when he pulls off his hoodie and giggles, saying, “Haha, hello love! I was just taking a jog, funny seeing you here.”

God, one of these days, Gavin’s going to be at the wrong time in the wrong place and Elyse is going to have to finally reveal herself, she just _knows_ it.

* * *

Elyse smiles down at Benson, petting the dog’s head gently. He leans into the touch and waits patiently, sitting by her feet. The bag beside her shifts and a soft mewl escapes it. Elyse makes sure to open it up enough that the kitten can breathe, running her fingers over its back delicately. She’s not sure how Gavin’s going to react; either he accepts the kitten gratefully and offers eternal debt, or he rejects the gift and apologises and feels bad about it all. Either way, Elyse just wants to make sure Gavin understands that he’s important to her, one of the best things that’s happened in the past month or two.

“Benson!”

The dog’s head turns at the sound of his name and Elyse zips up the bag in time to spot Gavin running towards her. A smile spreads across her face and she releases her hold on the leash.

After what she expects to happen goes down tonight… Elyse isn’t certain how long she’s going to last with the new target about to be painted on her back. She just wants to make sure she made at least one positive impact on this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, shocker, bet _no one_ saw _that_ coming!!! :^)


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “I don’t work at an IT company, I know my girlfriend is a trained assassin. On the first day I met Elyse I was tired and needed coffee after having spent all night researching an ammunition supplier because FakeHaus had stolen a supply crate and my boss was mad. My boss being Geoff Ramsey, and me being, uh, Vav.”  
> Gavin has a split second to avoid the punch aimed directly for his head, the fist slamming into the wall to his right.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> last chapter get ready for drama~  
>  _ **That’s what a Pink Cloud is: a breath of fresh air between cigarettes, an extra life even when you’re already on your ninth.**_

_I don’t care if they talkin’ about us... no,_  
_I don’t care if they put us down... no,_  
_I don’t care if the sky falls around us,_  
_We’re riding on a Pink Cloud!_

* * *

“About time you got a girl,” Jack says, oblivious to the way Gavin’s struggling to remember basic functions, like breathing, “Maybe she’ll slap some sense into you.”

Elyse laughs softly, and it’s exactly the same way she laughs when she’s around Gavin. “No, I’m just as bad as them.” He feels a phantom hand wind its way around his throat and squeeze, feels the air being sucked out of him and leaving him with a drowning sensation. Michael picks up on it quickly and he bumps his shoulder against Gavin’s. The physical contact is enough to jump-start his lungs and Gavin sucks in a deep breath, letting it out slowly. He doesn’t have enough time to be grateful for his mask, hiding his face from Elyse, hiding his identity from her.

If she finds out it’s Gavin under the cat mask, everything would go to shit.

A soft whine escapes him and Michael frowns. Even Geoff side-glances him for a split second before clearing his throat and addressing FakeHaus again.

“So, who are you?” he asks, hands behind his back and standing tall.

“Elyse Willems, James is my husband.”

Gavin chokes on his tongue and the two crews look at him. He shuffles awkwardly and coughs. “Vav, bud, you okay?” Jack asks, a slight amount of concern slipping into her voice. Gavin gives the thumbs up instead of responding vocally, not wanting to give himself away to Elyse in the slightest bit. Ryan stares at him with a weird look but doesn’t speak, like the usual creepy fucker he is.

Gavin told them her name was Elyse.

They might know its _her_.

Oh god.

Oh _god_.

“Vav, we’re going to have a talk after this,” Geoff says lowly. Gavin nods automatically, but his eyes are trained on Elyse. She’s giving him a weird look but it’s not the way she would usually look at him. He can only assume she doesn’t know it’s _him_ under the mask, that she’s simply there because her husband is a crew member. “You’re stepping on our toes, FakeHaus,” Geoff warns, puffing his chest up. Although he’s not the tallest of the group, he’s rolled up his sleeves and is purposely showing off his tattooed arms for intimidation.

“You robbed our hit first,” Kovic retorts. Well, they’re not wrong, but Geoff doesn’t back down easily.

“We didn’t realise you were going to rob it.”

“Bullshit!” Gavin glances over at Willems – James, not Elyse – as the man steps forward and points at him accusingly, “You got hold of our plans and pulled the heist just to get at us!” His gut clenches when he sees Elyse cross her arms over her chest and nod in agreement.

“So what if we did?” Jack replies, waving a hand lazily, “You had no claim on that store.” Michael pulls out his phone and starts typing something into it.

Peake quirks an eyebrow, “It was in our territory, you shouldn’t have even been there in the first place.”

“Oops?” Geoff shrugs with a smug grin plastered across his face. “We’re only here to reinstate our usual terms. Unless you have something you’d like to say to us?”

“The treaty’s off,” Greene announces, raising his chin in a challenging manner at Geoff, “Everything and everyone’s free reign. You can rob and kill whoever, whatever, wherever. You die? Too bad.” Gavin winces softly. Elyse’s face falters for a split second, and Gavin wonders what she’s thinking about, hoping she’s concerned about the dumb British guy who’s been lying to her like it was second nature for _months_. Then again, she was also lying too. They’re equally at fault here. But she doesn’t know he’s a Fake, not yet at least.

He needs to get out of here.

However, before he can move, his phone vibrates in his pants and Gavin pulls it out. He hopes Elyse isn’t paying close enough attention to notice the exact same grooves in the phone’s casing.

**Micoo** **_  
_ ** **_‘You alright boi? Everything okay?’_ **

Gavin’s at least thankful Michael isn’t as smart as, say, Ryan. Ryan’s still giving him an odd look, occasionally glancing over at Elyse. Gavin worries he’s figured it out – no, he’s almost one hundred percent certain Ryan knows that Elyse is the same girl Gavin’s been hanging out with and meeting up for the past few months. He types back a short message.

**Gav** **_  
_ ** **_‘Tell Geoff my throat’s raw and I’m going home to rest.’_ **

As soon as he sends the message, he turns on his heels and makes to leave. He hears Jack call out his codename and he hesitates. Both crews are looking at him, although Michael looks more concerned than confused. Gavin points at his boi before turning on his heels. Geoff hisses at Michael and Gavin quickly departs, feeling eyes boring into the back of his skull.

Before he can think much about it, he sends off a quick text to Elyse.

**Gav** **_  
_ ** **_‘I really need to talk to you some time soon’_ **

When he reaches the door, he hears a ping from behind him and winces internally before quickly shoving his way into the pouring rain.

**Elyse** **_  
_ ** **_‘Okay? When?’_ **

**Gav** **_  
_ ** **_‘Tomorrow.’_ **

* * *

“What the _fuck_ is going on, Gavin?” Geoff hisses. Gavin doesn’t meet his gaze. Instead, he rubs his hands together and wishes the couch would open up and swallow him whole as he sinks down into it. “You left us to face off against FakeHaus – who now has _two_ more members than us!”

“Geoff-” Ryan begins, only for the older man to continue talking over the top of him.

“You could have at least tried to make the lie believable. Raw throat my ass, on the way there you wouldn’t shut up!” Behind Geoff, Michael’s got his arms folded but, just like at the meetup, he looks mostly concerned rather than angry. Ray disappeared into his room as soon as they returned to the penthouse and Jeremy’s left to hang out by the hallway, watching the discussion with a rather conflicted expression.

“Gavin,” Jack speaks up, and he looks at the woman curiously, head bowing, “Look, we’re not going to be mad, we just want to know what’s going on.”

His chest tightens and he tucks his legs up on the couch, leaning back some more. Quietly, he says, “I really messed up. And I was dumb, and stupid. And I lied and I didn’t realise I was being lied to as well. I should have picked up on it sooner.”

“Geoff,” Ryan says sternly, attracting the crew’s attention, “Let me talk to him.”

“I think I know what’s going on,” Jeremy says, looking at Ryan. The two stare for a couple moments, regarding each other in a silent conversation before Ryan nods. Jeremy’s shoulders drop and he looks at Gavin with something akin to sympathy.

Gavin looks away quickly; he  _hates_ that look, _especially_ on Jeremy.

“You better sort this out then,” Geoff grumbles, turning on his heels and walking into another room. “Jack, Michael, I need your input on this.” The two in question follow after him into the heisting room, the former hesitating and glancing over her shoulder at the other three. Finally, the door closes and leaves Gavin in the living room with Ryan and Jeremy. Gavin refuses to meet their gazes, tapping his fingers against the couch cushions.

“So,” Ryan begins, seating himself beside Gavin. He pulls away from Ryan, tucking himself into the corner of the couch. “Elyse, huh?”

“I knew it,” Jeremy calls out. Gavin’s not sure how he should react. Ryan scolds Jeremy and the younger simply apologises and hangs about nearby, leaning against the wall.

“Did you know?” Ryan questions in a soft voice, something he reserves for close crew members when they’re at their worst. Knowing that only makes Gavin’s stomach tighten.

Gavin can remember when Ray was still new to the crew and was struggling to figure out where he fit in. He walked into the apartment and saw Ray and Ryan sitting on the couch, Ryan speaking in the same tone he’s using now as the other simply listened and nodded, not even noticing Gavin’s presence. He quickly left and slipped into his room, not wanting to disrupt them.

“Of course I didn’t bloody know!” Gavin retorts, a bit too harshly in all honesty, “I didn’t realise she was just using me as a cover and I didn’t know she was a criminal, let alone part of FakeHaus! She just seemed really normal and nice and I liked to talk to her like a regular person would.” He tips his head back against the couch, glowering at the ceiling. “It’s not fair. I don’t think she knows I’m a Fake either, and I… I don’t know, I don’t want to hurt her like… like…”

“Like how she hurt you?” Jeremy supplies. Gavin sighs and closes his eyes but nods in agreement. He doesn’t hear anything for a moment, so he can only assume Ryan and Jeremy are silently debating on how to go about the situation.

“Maybe… maybe you should go for a short vacation,” Ryan suggests, an odd tone in his voice.

That only puts Gavin on edge though. He rolls his head to the side and cracks an eye open to look at the man. “What? Why would I do that?”

“Because I know what Geoff’s planning, and you’re not going to like it.” Jeremy shuffles awkwardly on the side, not looking at Gavin. Gavin’s eyebrows dip and he lifts his head up, levelling Ryan with a confused expression as he asks what the plan’s about. Ryan looks away, resting his hands together. “Well, remember how we found FakeHaus’ base? He’s planning on kidnapping Elyse.” Gavin sucks in a sharp breath and forgets how to let it out. “Tonight.”

He stares at Ryan, then at Jeremy, but they’re both not meeting his gaze. Gavin ends up coughing when he breathes out, patting a hand at his chest as he stands up. “I’m going out.” Ryan glances up at him, and Jeremy opens his mouth to say something, only to stop when Ryan holds a hand up to him.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Gavin walks over to the kitchen counter and picks up his keys. He nods resolutely. Ryan sighs and rises to his feet, the couch squeaking and the floorboards creaking as he approaches. Gavin takes a small, wary step backwards, glancing at Ryan’s hands as they curl and unfurl. But instead of reaching out and grabbing him, instead of forcing him to listen to reason, Ryan gives him a small smile and passes his phone to him from the bench to his right. “Be safe, don’t get caught. I hope it goes well for you.”

“Best of luck,” Jeremy tags on, “I’ll tell the crew you weren’t feeling great and went to stay at a safe house after getting meds from Caleb, he owes me a favour.”

Gavin smiles, his lips cracking, and says, “Thanks, I’ll try and be back soon.” That done, he spins on his heels and leaves the penthouse. While he’s in the elevator, he sends off a quick text.

**Gav** **_  
_ ** **_‘Something came up, please, can I invite you over to my place for the night? I really need to talk to someone.’_ **

The response is almost instant.

**Elyse** **_  
_ ** **_‘Give me an address and I’ll be there in half an hour.’_ **

* * *

“Are you sure I’m in the right house, this isn’t some strangers place that you broke into?” Elyse questions, smiling as she steps inside. Gavin just lets out a small, nervous laugh, shutting the door behind her.

“The others aren’t here and, uh, Jenny cleaned up the place. I just really wanted to finally hang out with you without being in public. Also I was maybe kinda upset about something my friends are doing.” Elyse gives him a curious look but nods, setting her bag down beside the couch in the living room and seating herself. Gavin wanders over to join her, and judging by the way she looks at him with a concerned expression, he’s failing at masking his emotions.

“What are they doing?”

He fumbles with his hands as he speaks, trying to make gestures to help properly explain himself. “Well, they wanted to go do something, to hurt a person I care about – not Meg, don’t worry, she’s safe – but I chickened out and came back here while they’re off in town.”

“Won’t they be annoyed when they come back and find me here?”

“Oh, uh, they won’t be back for a couple days, don’t worry.” He manages to smile at her, but he feels as if it doesn’t have his usual charm in it. Elyse smiles in return, attempting to be reassuring. “But, uh, if someone _does_ return, just go find somewhere to hide. Like, in one of the bedrooms. We just moved into here, actually, so most of our stuff is at our old place.”

“Yeah?” she questions, glancing around. Then her eyes fall on the consoles beneath the TV and her face lights up. “What about those, can we play a game or two?”

“Wot? Yeah, sure, if you wanna? I haven’t messed with these in a while.”

Elyse grins and gets to her feet, wandering over to the collection of games with a small skip in her step. “You’re going _down_ , Gruchy.” Gavin’s momentarily confused, but then remembers he told Elyse his last name was Gruchy – because he’s a _bloody idiot_ – and quickly smiles again.

They get through two games of Mario Party before they both agree it’s not as fun with just two people.

Gavin spots Elyse chewing the inside of her cheek and prods her side, questioning what she’s thinking about.

“Well, if you want, you could come say hi to my friends?” Gavin blinks owlishly at her words, leaning backwards. Elyse is quick to back up her suggestion. “I mean, the more the merrier, and they’re really great guys! They really like playing games too and I thought it might be interesting. It’ll help keep your head clear, yeah?”

Gavin rubs his hands together, “Well, uh, I can’t really bring them here? My friends don’t trust me with people around, they don’t even know _you’re_ here. Geo- George would have a fit if he found out.”

“That’s okay,” Elyse says, shrugging, “You can come visit us, yeah? Our place isn’t too far away, we can all hang out there maybe?”

Shit.

How can he politely decline this?

Gavin mulls over his options, and none of them are really great. Elyse leans in and pushes at his shoulder. “C’mon, please? You’ll _love_ them.”

“I don’t remember their names,” Gavin lies. He remembers Larry and Jimmy, and maybe a couple others, but he _knows_ those are fake names.

Elyse’s face splits into a grin, “Oh don’t worry about that, they don’t know you outside of what I’ve told them and I’m sure you’ll get along well.”

“I don’t like sleeping at other people’s places though.” Gavin doesn’t have to lie about that; the last time he slept over at a stranger’s place, he woke up with a gun pointed at his head. Elyse blows a raspberry at the air.

“Then we’ll come back here when we feel tired.”

Gavin knows it’s reckless. He knows it’s idiotic, stupid, and careless.

“Okay, sure.”

Gavin’s at least ninety nine percent certain Elyse will be the death of him.

* * *

When Gavin thought about FakeHaus’ hideout, he imagined some kind of crowded, ratty apartment, maybe even a townhouse with an unkempt garden and rubbish everywhere. But the house he pulls up to cannot be described as anything other than a mansion. Elyse looks at him uncertainly. “Uhm, don’t worry, they’re not snobby assholes.” As if to prove her point, Gavin hears an engine revving as they drive through the gates. He spots Willems and Greene on motorbikes doing donuts, Rubin standing to the side with a phone in hand. Gavin unintentionally tenses up and wriggles his fingers in his lap. Willems’ head perks up when Elyse’s car pulls in, releasing the brakes and driving over to her.

“Elyse!” he shouts, driving around her car as she leads it into their garage. Gavin glances at the Adder to his left and can’t help but wonder if it’s faster than Michael’s. The engine cuts out and Elyse opens her door. Gavin sucks in a breath and does the same.

And just like that, a switch flips. Willems’ motorbike halts suddenly and he stares at Gavin. Greene and Rubin cease their mucking about and stare at him as he shuts the car door. Elyse quickly circles around to his side, obviously having noticed how Gavin hadn’t moved yet, and hooks her arm with his. “Guys, this is Gavin.” He offers them a small wave with his free arm. “Something came up and I thought meeting you guys would cheer him up.”

In an instant, Willems grins and his expression flickers to open and warm, eyes crinkling around the edges. “Hey, Gavin. Heard a lot about you!” He drives his motorbike inside the garage and hops off. Elyse starts dragging Gavin over to the front door of the mansion.

Before they reach there, Rubin comes up and claps Gavin on the shoulder, surprising him. “So _you’re_ the guy Elyse keeps talking about, huh? Do you really have a British accent?”

“I don’t know, do I?” Gavin asks, swallowing to wet his dry mouth, “To me, _you_ are the ones with accents.” They obviously haven’t spoken to him often enough in the past to recognise him by voice. Rubin just chuckles and nods, opening the door for them both and ushering them inside, Greene and Willems trailing behind the two.

“Where’s Lawrence?” Elyse questions, leading Gavin through a lavish living room. A man leaning on the counter lifts his head at the question.

Gavin tries not to show any signs of recognition when Peake jabs a finger down the hall and says, “Games room with Spoole. Also, hi random guy.” Gavin gives him a polite wave of his hand, continuing to walk with Elyse down the hall. He feels eyes on the back of his head and glances over a shoulder. Rubin is watching him curiously, head tilted to the side and arms over his chest. Gavin looks away quickly and rounds a corner.

He narrowly dodges an Xbox controller, the device hitting the wall behind him.

“God dammit, Spoole! That was special edition!” Sonntag – Lawrence, he should really try to refer to them by their first names – shouts, the man beside him leaning backwards and shrugging.

“What? The game’s frustrating! I didn’t mean to throw it, it just kinda happened.”

Elyse smiles and wanders closer. She releases Gavin’s arm in favour of leaning over the back of the couch, surprising the two and making them jump. “Are you two fighting? Do you need Joel to get in here to give counselling sessions?”

“No, but tell him we need to get a new Xbox controller since Spoole just broke _another_ one.” The mildly annoyed look on Lawrence’s face reminds Gavin of the way Michael would scold him whenever he would fuck up on a heist, whenever he would shoot an empty magazine and question why nothing was happening. Seeing his supposed _‘enemies’_ in such a relaxed and ordinary scenario only serves to make Gavin question if these men are _actually_ robbers, criminals, killers. He hears footsteps behind him and a sigh as Omar walks in and spots the broken controller lying on the floor.

Gavin turns to Elyse and says quietly, so the others can’t hear, “Can I please talk to you? In private?”

Although her expression drops for a millisecond, Elyse agrees with a nod and leads him out of the room. He can’t help but sneak a peek into the open doors he brushes past, but all he sees are ordinary bedrooms. He even spots a pair of feline eyes staring back at him from beneath a bed. Gavin finds himself in a bedroom eventually, he’s not certain whose, but he can assume it’s the Willems’ judging by the animal hair on the bed sheets and the more couple-y appearance. As far as he knows, the rest of FakeHaus aren’t in relationships yet. “What do you want to talk about?” Elyse questions once she shuts the door, cutting off the sound of gaming and chatter.

Gavin sucks in a breath and spits it out. “That’s FakeHaus.” Elyse stiffens and Gavin’s face twitches. “I mean, those are _FakeHaus members_ , Elyse. Oh. My. God.”

“Look, look, it’s okay, they’re not as bad as the news makes them out to be.”

Gavin winces but nods slowly. “So, that time when you were on the phone after I told you the place down the road had been robbed?”

Elyse nods slowly and runs her hands over her forearms. “Yeah, that was me telling my crew.” Gavin twitches at those words. She’s _admitting_ to being part of FakeHaus. He’s not sure how badly he’s supposed to react, but he keeps it as much under wraps as he can.

“And the bank? You were planning on helping them rob it?”

“Well, I don’t really do any shooting or anything. I just… I go in, I look for guards and security cameras, guns and alarms, that kinda thing. I usually play as their hostage so no one suspects me.”

“What about the café? That’s not even your job, is it?”

“Oh, what? No! I mean, I _did_ learn to make coffee and to work there. I was using it as an alibi because the police were investigating me.” Gavin winces again and Elyse’s face softens. She reaches out to rest a hand on his shoulder, and Gavin surprises himself by not shrugging her off. “Hey, look here.” It takes him a second to raise his gaze and meet Elyse’s, but she offers him an uncertain smile when he does. “I’m still your friend, yeah? I didn’t mean to lie, I just… I didn’t want to scare you away. You would never have talked to me if I told you I was married to a crew member, would you?”

She lied for the exact same reasons he did. Still does. He shakes his head ever so slowly.

“Are they… will they, like, uh…”

He doesn’t even need to finish his sentence, because Elyse laughs and shakes her head. “No, they’re not going to hurt you or anything. They’re really great to hang out with, even if they sometimes act like dicks.” Gavin can’t help but snort then give a small shrug upon noticing Elyse’s conflicted expression.

“Okay, I mean, I’ll _try_ to get along with them?”

A smile spreads across Elyse’s face and she grabs Gavin by the arm, already hauling him back to the others. “Perfect. They’ve been all but _begging_ to meet you.”

“Better than my friends; they’ve been trying to follow me to try and meet you.” Elyse lets slip a small half-laugh, smothering herself as she returns to the gaming area. So far, Gavin can count Lawrence, Spoole, Adam, Joel, James, Matt, Omar, and Bruce. So basically all of FakeHaus plus Elyse. Their heads swivel around to Gavin when Elyse pulls him over towards one of the seats, gesturing for him to sit down.

“Gavin, right?” Adam asks from his left. Gavin can’t help but lean away in surprise and stare at him. He’s seen this man on news reports, seen him throwing punches at grown men and knocking them unconscious, seen him hollering out of a window with a submachine gun in hand. And here he is, wearing a shirt with a cat face on it and a Wii remote in hand as he lounges on a couch with mismatched socks.

Gavin can’t help if he’s a little stunned and nervous, especially when he’s surrounded by his crew’s _‘mortal enemies’_. “Uh, yeah. What’s Elyse told you about me?”

“That you’re british,” Lawrence says, pointing his remote at one of the television screens.

“You’re an IT guy.” Gavin quirks an eyebrow at Matt, who seems more interested in his game pad than anything else.

Omar turns on the second TV and adds in, “You like marshmallows.”

“Oh! You make weird noises? Is that true?”

Spoole looks at Gavin curiously, but James starts speaking before he can respond. “Accident prone.”

“You love animals.”

“Cats mostly,” Bruce clarifies, Adam nodding in agreement.

“You’ve pulled her out of trouble multiple times – thanks for that.”

Gavin gives them a slight smile, “No problem. She told you all that, huh?” Elyse shrugs with an unapologetic smirk. Gavin pulls a face, sneering playfully, but then retreats with a small grin.

“Yeah,” Joel says with a roll of his shoulders, turning to look at Gavin, “Does she talk much about us?”

“Can’t say she does,” Gavin responds with a shake of his head.

“Elyse!” James calls with surprising volume, “Aren’t we your favourites?”

“Fuck no.” Gavin snickers and watches as Bruce pulls a sad face and pointedly turns away from her. Elyse sighs and rolls her eyes before patting him on the arm. “There there.”

“You’ve destroyed this family, Elyse!” Elyse just smiles fondly, and Gavin seems to realise she’s as used to this kind of tomfoolery as he is amongst his own crew.

Then Adam looks at him with a surprisingly friendly grin and says, “Well, nice to meet you, Gavin, my name’s Ad-”

“Adam Kovic, I know.” Gavin doesn’t fail to miss the way the group looks up at him quickly. Gavin messes with his hands and looks away so he doesn’t have to stare at their faces. “The news covers you all a lot.”

“Holy shit, Elyse,” Bruce turns to look at her as she leans over the back of the couch, “He’s got some _balls_ on him to come in here knowing we’re all criminals!”

Elyse barks out a small laugh, “Not really, he runs at the slightest hint of danger. He was held hostage in a Fakes robbery and the first thing he did was run out of the store.” Gavin shrugs and accepts the offered Wii remote from Matt.

Lawrence groans, “Fucking Fakes. They get so much more coverage than we do on the news, what’s so special about them and not us?”

“They do more elaborate stuff?” Omar suggests, earning himself a flick to the arm via James.

“I bet you we’ll be on the news within a week;” James says confidently, leaning back on the couch with his arms behind his head, “we’re bound to start shooting each other soon now that the treaty is off.”

Gavin reminds himself to play dumb and pulls a confounded face, “Yeah? What treaty?”

Lawrence waves a hand at the air dismissively, “Oh, it’s just a dumb thing Ramsey suggested. It basically meant we weren’t allowed to steal directly from each other and we couldn’t kill crew members or associates. It was just so he didn’t get pulverised. But now we have more members than him, so he _knows_ we’re gonna beat him if it comes head-to-head!”

“Yeah, and when that Vav guy left?” Bruce lets out a short, biting laugh, “Wow, they were on shaky ground!”

“Vav left?”

Joel nods at Gavin’s question and replies, “The guy got really nervous when we arrived at a meetup, wouldn’t say a word, and then left, much to his own crew’s surprise!”

“He’s also british! Do you have a british friend here?” Lawrence’s head perks up and looks at Spoole curiously, before the room’s attention quickly shifts to Gavin. He fidgets in his chair and looks towards the television, at the two games of Mario Party 10, and he wonders how wild it’s going to be having ten people playing Mario on two televisions.

“Uh, yeah, a friend of mine, Dan. He works with me.”

“What’s he like?” Gavin looks at Lawrence, at the thoughtful look on his face. They’re trying to find Vav. He can’t believe his luck; all the stories Elyse has told them must have convinced the crew he’s not Vav. So he tries to think of all the things the news reporters say about him.

“Smooth talker, cocky, always dresses up”-Gavin internally praises himself for wearing his grapes shirt today-“and wears way too much jewellery to be working as a hacker. He’s hardly ever around and skips work a lot of the time.”

“Was he there on Wednesday? Or Monday?” Oh, right. On Monday the crew hit a department store and _‘Vav’_ was there, and on Wednesday he and Jeremy were caught by a swarm of journalists and news reporters after coming back from a minor negotiation.

“No, why?”

“What’s his full name?”

“Daniel… what, why? Wait, do you think he’s _Vav?_ ” He stresses the word, looking amongst the crew members. Lawrence side glances Joel and Bruce, the two giving him a shrug, and he nods. “Oh my god, that makes _sense_. His name’s Daniel Free.”

Dan’s gonna kill him if he ever finds out.

A heavy sigh leaves Matt, “How original. It’ll take us _ages_ to track down someone with a name as common as _that_.”

Elyse clears her throat, “Uhm, Gavin, what _exactly_ does your company do?”

It takes him a second to remember what he told Elyse, what lies he spun to make her believe him. “Oh, uh, I thought they were just an IT company, but it turns out they were researching _you_ guys. And if Dan’s Vav, like you say he is…”

“We need to get rid of him,” James announces.

Gavin winces.

Elyse spots the action and quickly reaches out to grab James by the shoulder before he can stand up. “Not so hasty. We’re here to play games and have _fun_ tonight, right?” She looks to the others for approval, finally looking towards Gavin. He visibly forces himself to relax and nod, looking back at the televisions expectantly. He’s mostly surprised by how many controllers and gaming consoles they have; every single member of the crew gets to take part in a game without waiting to tag in or out.

And although initially terrified by the idea of hanging out with FakeHaus members, even if they don’t recognise him, Gavin finds himself slowly unwinding, muscles relaxing the later it gets into the night. He can’t help but laugh along as soon as James cracks a joke, Omar gets soft drink in his nose, Bruce wheezes so hard he farts, and the crew makes a mad dash to get away from the stench, gagging dramatically. They tease and prod at him when he squeaks, when he lets out an offended squawk when he fails a mini game, even repeating his sayings right back at him.

“ _Oooooh_ , you’re havin’ a _bloody_ _laugh!_ GOOOOODDD!”

“Oh! _You’re havin’ a bloody laugh,_ huh?”

“I think that’s Gavin for keep bullying him, Bruce.”

“Actually, it’s British for stop targeting me you mincy, little, _shitty, prick, baAHB BUup!!_ ”

“What was _that_  noise?”

“He’s having a seizure from how awesome I am.”

“Augh, shut up, Joel. Gavin, don’t listen to him, he’s a horrible gamer.”

By the time Bruce brings out the alcohol, Gavin’s struggling to remind himself these people are killers, murderers, people who have given him and his crew nothing shy of a living hell ever since they appeared in Los Santos. But as far as his relaxed mind is concerned, they’re great company and can make him smile, especially when everyone else around him is laughing too.

On more than one occasion, they make fun of his accent and his British words, but it’s so reminiscent of the way Michael and Geoff would poke and imitate him he’s more flattered than offended. He’s only given one bottle of beer and the crew instantly vetoes anymore drinks as soon as it starts foaming and Gavin struggles to swallow the bubbles before it can fall to the carpet.

He guiltily thinks of how this reminds him of his own crew, who are like family to him.

Gavin _understands_ why Elyse smiles fondly when she thinks of them. Because he does the _exact same thing_.

Then Matt offhandedly asks him if he has a girlfriend. Gavin can’t help but grin and nod. “Oh, yeah, she’s great, I love her.”

“Whoa, pulling out the _‘L’_ word a bit early there, huh bud?” James snickers.

From the other couch—“The L word is Lawrence, me, women scream it a lot…”

Elyse sighs and says, “I remember you used to say you loved me every day.”

Omar leans over to Lawrence, seeing as the others ignored him, and whispers, “Yeah, Elyse screams  _Lawrence_  when you fuck up the game for everyone, never in bed.” Omar almost falls out of his seat when Lawrence gives him a small shove, but mostly goes unnoticed. 

James tilts his head, mock-innocent, and responds with, “I _like_ like you?” Elyse picks up a couch cushion and lightly hits James over the head with it, making the rest of the crew, plus Gavin, laugh. James recovers quickly and looks at Gavin again. “Yeah, but what’s she like? Smart? Pretty? Smokin’ hot?”

“All of those and more.” Adam whistles from beside him and Gavin knocks shoulders with the man, but barely makes him sway the slightest bit with his smaller frame. “She’s a professional model.” The crew falls silent, all of them surprised aside from Elyse who just nods approvingly.

“Are we talkin’ like…” Joel trails off, making hand gestures, before pointing at Spoole.

“One of _those_ kinds of models?” Spoole finishes asking. Gavin tilts his head, asking for further elaboration. “Does she pose nude?”

“Sometimes? Mostly it’s just lingerie and underwear.”

Bruce gapes openly. “And you’re _okay_ with that?” Gavin can’t help the small laugh that oozes out of him; they don’t know about her _other_ job. He nods though and Bruce looks over at Elyse. “Why don’t _you_ do that? All women should get photographed for men's pleasure, that’s their only purpose in life.” Gavin hesitates and stares at him in shock, but there’s a hint of mirth in his quirked lips.

Elyse doesn’t even look fazed, simply sighs dramatically and says, “Well, I _would_ but my _hubby_ over here doesn’t want me showing off to the world.” James leans back to look at her, mildly offended, but then sees the smug expression on Elyse’s face and quickly snorts. He wraps an arm around her and pulls Elyse close.

“You’re showing a little bit of your collarbone, sweetie!”

“Scandalous!” Joel mocks in a high-pitched tone, holding a hand dramatically to his face.

Gavin giggles and finds himself being asked more about his _‘smokin’ hot’_ girlfriend. “Uh, she travels a lot for shoots, she likes games, we play together a lot. She plays online with our friends, like, uh, Randy and Jenny and James.”

The crew looks towards James curiously, but he holds up his hands. “Nope, not me, I don’t know a model!” After that revelation, Matt perks up and looks at Gavin with squinted eyes.

“What’s your girlfriend’s name?”

“Uhm, Meg, why?” Gavin fiddles with his controller and turns his attention towards the television.

A flash of alarm crosses Lawrence’s face. “Megan Turney?” Gavin curses inwardly but nods. “Do you, uh, know about her… _work?_ ” Gavin quickly smothers the initial urge to grimace and curse himself out, instead choosing to tilt his head curiously and smile.

“I just said she gets photographed semi-nude, yeah, I know about her work. I don’t have anything wrong with it, she still loves me, it’s not like she’s going off and shagging any old guy she sees, yeah? I don’t care if she has pictures taken and has to travel to photoshoots a lot, she still _cares_ about me. It’s _her_ body. I don’t _own_ her.” He winces when he says those last few words, because those are true and really bother him to know some people think like that. Meg initially was worried about how Gavin felt on the issue of her work, but as soon as Gavin eased her worries, everything fell into place.

Overall, Gavin’s impressed that he manages to pull off fooling the crew.

Omar leans in closer to Lawrence and whispers, _“Who’s Megan Turney?”_

Lawrence may think he’s being quiet, but he’s had at least four beers and three shots by this point and cannot properly manage his volume.

_“Dude, an assassin is who.”_

Adam speaks up, almost covering Lawrence’s whisper, but not enough that Gavin doesn’t hear. “So, she plays games with a guy called James, yeah? James who?”

“Haywood?” Spoole calls out. Elyse frowns gently and shakes her head. Something must slip onto Gavin’s face – Surprise? Fear? Recognition? – because Spoole’s face lights up and he grins. “Yeah, James Haywood!”

“Why? Who is he?” he questions curiously. Elyse’s head snaps around to him with wide eyes, tilting her head in question. He doesn’t respond because he’s still asking himself _how_ the _bloody_ _hell_ did they find out Ryan’s real name? The others he doesn’t really worry about, they don’t all wear masks, and some even go by their real names: Geoff Ramsey and Jack Pattillo. But Ryan wears a mask _and_ has a codename. They must have their fingers on some sweet intel, or someone on their side let something slip through the cracks.

“Oh, no one, don’t worry,” Elyse quickly interrupts, waving a hand dismissively. Bruce looks at her with a crease in his brows and opens his mouth, but Elyse catches Gavin’s eyes and says, “Wow, it’s late, and if we stay any longer and keep drinking the chances of us crashing on the drive back only get higher and higher.”

Adam’s face drops in an instant, “Drive back? You’re leaving?”

Gavin nods, albeit sadly. “Yeah, sorry, I don’t like sleeping over at other people’s houses. It’s just… I don’t sleep well in unfamiliar places.”

“Awww,” James sags down on the couch but doesn’t argue the point. Gavin’s not surprised; he wonders how many years it’s been since they slept in somewhere that wasn’t their mansion or a safehouse. “Well, feel free to come visit us any time, yeah?”

“You gonna miss me?” Gavin asks, snickering as he stands up and hands off his controller to Adam.

“Nah, screw you and your British, twink ass,” Bruce replies without hesitation. Gavin smiles at him nevertheless, Elyse looking on fondly. Joel offers him a high five as he passes, Matt calling out goodbye and Spoole almost tumbling over the back of the couch to see him off. Elyse guides Gavin back towards the front door, Spoole right behind them and waving as they depart.

Elyse surprises Gavin by getting into one of the more luxurious rides – a Tyrus he thinks. The engine vibrates the seat beneath him and Elyse taps her hands on the wheel languidly as the radio thrums at a low volume.

“So?” she begins, glancing at Gavin as she pulls onto the street, “What do you think of them?”

“They’re not at all what I expected,” he responds honestly, “I mean, Adam and Bruce have a lot of visible muscle and look really rough and mean, and I’ve seen footage of them punching people unconscious before! But they’re honestly not as bad, they just seem like normal people… if normal people occasionally robbed places and killed police.”

Elyse nods and spins the wheel of the car. Gavin holds tightly to the door and his seat belt as they skid around a corner before continuing down the road. “I _told_ you they’re great. Also kinda assholes, but still great. They’re brother-type assholes: can’t get rid of them, unfortunately have to love them.” Gavin can’t help but chortle and nod in agreement. He sticks a hand out the window when Elyse rolls it down for him, wiggling his fingers in the wind. “You feeling better?”

“Much.” Gavin responds, turning to grin at Elyse. He knows he can keep Elyse away from his crew at the safehouse. Oh, yeah, speaking of his crew. Gavin pulls out his phone, which had been buzzing in his pocket a couple times but he was too worried someone would see his screen if he pulled it out to check the messages. He’s not surprised to find messages from his crew members plus his girlfriend.

**Rye** ****  
**_‘I told them you’re sick and wanted to be alone.’_ ** **_  
_ ** ******_‘They won’t bother you at the safehouse.’_**

**Jack(ie Chan)** ****  
**_**‘Ryan told me you weren’t feeling well. Make sure you take medication and stay in bed.’**_ ** ****  
****_‘Stay off your laptop or any kind of gaming device.’_ ** **  
******_‘Nevermind. You left your laptop here? Stay away from the Xbox and the Wii.’_**

 **X-Ray **  
**_‘Dude you totally missed out on the best fail ever.’_**  
_**‘Michael and Jeremy were arguing about who was strongest and tried to arm wrestle but they broke the glass table.’**_ _  
_ _**‘Fucking amazing.’**_

**LIL J** ****  
**_**‘Get well soon.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Also Ray said he sent you what happened with me and Michael.’**_ ** **_  
_ ** ******_‘100% true. We both have matching bandages on our arms from all the glass shards.’_**

 **Alcoholic **  
**_‘Don’t fucking lie to me dude what’s really going on?’_**  
_**‘No one else is asking questions but something’s wrong and I know it.’**_  
_**‘Are you too scared to tell us?**_  
_**‘Is someone using something against you to keep quiet?’**_  
_**‘Is it FakeHaus?’**_ _  
_ _**‘I swear to god if it is them we’ll tear them a new one.’**_

 **Linds** **  
** **_**‘You better get well soon or I’ll send Ryan and Jack over to babysit your ass.’**_ **

****Micoo**** ****  
**_**‘Get well soon, boi.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘At least tell me you’re still alive and not drowning in vomit or something.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Gavin answer your fucking phone.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Hey asshole you’re missing out on Geoff being a drunk idiot, as per usual.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Well I just fucked up my shooting arm by wrestling the Boston Leprechaun. Remind me to never do that again.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Where the fuck are you, text me back already!’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘We’re heading out on mission soon.’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘You would’ve loved this one we’re gonna fuck FakeHaus up so hard!’**_ ** ****  
**_**‘Are you off with your “friend”? Ellie or whatever?’**_ ** **_  
_ ** ******_‘Meg won’t say shit to me, what the fuck? She usually tells me everything.’_**

 **Meg <3  **  
**_‘Be smart. She better be worth it. Don’t let either crews get to you.’_** _  
_ _**‘Stay safe. <3’**_

Of course Meg knows about Elyse, she’s not _dumb_. Gavin should have expected that in all honesty.

Gavin winces and turns his phone over, pulling the sim card out of the back. He pockets the small card and turns his phone back on.

They arrive back at the safehouse within the minute, Elyse parking the car along the side of it and out of sight of the road. Gavin leads her to the front of the house and is thankful she doesn’t question the multiple security locks on the door.

“So, what other games have you got?” she questions, moving over towards the TV.

“We can play Portal 2 if you’d like?”

Elyse’s face splits into a grin and she picks up the Xbox controller with an enthusiastic nod. Gavin wastes no time in setting the game up. He disappears into the kitchen whilst it loads, returning with a packet of gummy pythons. “Did you want some lollies? There’s another packet in the cupboard if you want.”

“Hey, you say lollies!” Gavin nods and seats himself down, handing off the packet in favour of selecting the game mode, a snake hanging from his mouth.

They end up playing through roughly fifteen levels before Gavin notices Elyse has fallen quiet. When he glances over, she’s fallen asleep tucked into the corner of the couch, controller hanging loosely in her hand. He can’t help the small amused coo that escapes him. He turns off the Xbox and glances over at the staircase leading up to the bedrooms. Gavin finds he can’t summon up enough energy to be bothered climbing up all those steps. Instead, he tucks his feet up and curls into the opposite end of the couch, resting his head on the armrest. Gavin has to gently wind his legs along the couch; Elyse’s feet are freezing cold against his calves when he finally finds a comfortable position. It’s easy for him to drift off like this, listening to the chirruping of grasshoppers outside and someone breathing steadily nearby.

* * *

Gavin finds himself awoken by the sound of keys and locks turning. He cracks an eye open and glances around. After the initial confusion of wondering where he is, he recognises the room, and then the lump that is Elyse, still curled up asleep. She shifts and her face scrunches up at the sound of jingling. Gavin hears a curse and metal clinking. He glances over his shoulder and sees a silhouette through the glass of the front door, followed by a distinctly Michael-esque voice.

“Gavin, let me in, you asshole!”

Oh _god_.

Oh _no_.

Gavin all but tumbles off of the couch, the loud thump finally awakening Elyse from sleep.

“Huh?” she questions softly, looking around curiously. Gavin's hand throbs from the impact but his brain ignores it in favour of trying to figure out how to stop this from happening. There’s not enough time for him to get Elyse out of the house, but maybe he can hold the door? Gavin stares with wide eyes as the final lock on the front door clicks and cracks open. Elyse tips her head over the back of the couch to stare at the new arrival, squinting.

There’s a couple seconds where no one moves. The calm before the storm. Where Michael’s too surprised to say anything, where Elyse is still registering who just arrived, where Gavin’s struggling to find a solution. But as soon as those few seconds pass, there’s no way to stop the shitstorm that ensues.

“What the _fuck?!_ ” Michael screeches. Elyse rolls her way off of the couch, towards her bag, and shoves her hand inside the open zipper. Gavin launches himself forward between Michael and Elyse, hands up to try and defuse the situation. Elyse retrieves a gun, trying to aim it at Michael as Gavin stands between them, arms straight and face taut.

“Gavin, get back!” she hisses in warning.

“Gavin!” Michael screeches, his voice pitching upwards. “What the _actual living fuck!_ ”

Gavin glances between the two uncertainly, trying to speak, “I don’t-”

“Gavin, get _back!_ ” Elyse repeats, straining her voice, eyes wide. Her arms waver the slightest amount. “That’s _Mogar!_ ”

“No shit, Sherlock!” Michael snaps back. Then, like a light bulb went off in his head, his expression shifts to one of shock again. “What the fuck, _she’s the girl?_  Gavin, what the fuck, oh my god, oh my god, oh my _god!_ ”

“Look, I’m sorry, I didn’t-”

Elyse looks between the two in her confusion, keeping her distance and maintaining her stance. “What?”

“She doesn’t even _know!_ You liar!”

“No! She doesn’t!”

“Oh my god!” Elyse withdraws her gun, pressing her hands against her head and staring at the two. “Oh my god, I’m an _idiot!_ ”

“Look, Elyse, I didn’t-”

“Shut the fuck up, Gavin, fucking traitor.” Gavin visibly flinches when Michael says that.

“Wait, she’s harmless, she doesn’t-”

“I said _shut up!_ ” Upon realizing Michael's not going to listen to a word he says, Gavin turns his attention towards Elyse, silently pleading for her to try and hear him out. She refuses to make eye contact. Michael takes a step towards Elyse. Elyse flinches. Gavin steps towards him, remaining standing in Michael’s way. He scowls at him, like he’s a stain on his brand new white shirt. “ _Move, Gavin._ ”

He doesn’t. Instead, he takes that final step closer and wraps his arms around Michael. Michael’s already got his hands up, trying to shove Gavin away, when he pulls and twists them both off balance. Gavin manages to smack his own head into the wall as he does so, hissing painfully when Michael once again tries to pull out of his hold and ends up kneeing him in the ribs. He looks over at Elyse, who is still standing there, frozen, her eyes wide.

“Get out of here!” he shouts. Elyse shakes her head and stumbles backwards. “Go!” She finally seems to register what he’s saying and turns tail to run. Michael shouts inexplicably and starts trying to escape from Gavin with renewed vigour. Gavin refuses to let go, listening to footsteps pounding along floorboards, getting further and further away.

He’s not really expecting the punch to his face.

“Backstabber,” Michael hisses, “Siding with _her_ , with _them._ ” Gavin wheezes, his grip loosening just enough that Michael can yank himself free. Gavin teeters forwards and reaches out, one eye scrunching up. His hands grab hold of Michael’s ankle, only to be roughly kicked away. “Geoff’ll deal with you.”

And with those words ringing finality, Michael takes off at a sprint, right as Gavin hears a window break from the other end of the house.

Wincing, Gavin pulls himself to his feet and takes a few shaky steps towards the sounds of a struggle, Elyse shouting as Michael curses up a storm. A shot fires and Elyse yelps, metal clanging. Gavin’s breathing stutters. He takes the last few leaps towards the door. He grabs hold of the door frame with heated palms just in time to see Michael land a punch, causing Elyse to keel over. Her hand holding the gun slams against the wall nearby and she whines, face scrunching up, before the weapon drops to the floor with a clatter. Gavin spots the pinprick hole in the roof and sighs with relief.

His relief is short lived as Michael twists Elyse around and manages to slam her face-first into the wall, her arm behind her back. Her wrist is already burning red from the harsh treatment. With his free hand, Michael pulls out a phone and hits speed-dial.

Gavin doesn’t even have to check to know who it is.

_Geoff._

He rushes forward and slaps the phone out of Michael’s hand, yanking at his shoulder to try and pull him away from Elyse. He receives a kick to the shins for his trouble and Gavin staggers. Michael scowls as the ringing from the phone fills the room, realising it’s on speaker. Gavin tries to wiggle his way between them both, shoving a hand at Michael’s chest and scraping his shoulder against the wall as Elyse wriggles and kicks again. A faceful of hair precedes a stinging pain to his chin and Gavin recoils just enough for Michael to yank Elyse away from the wall. She almost slams the back of her skull into his head but is stopped just shy of his face as a foot hooks with her ankle and she teeters off balance. Gavin’s hands scrabble on the tile to grab Elyse before she could fall, but not quick enough as she finds herself pressed face-first into the ground as Michael hovers over her, arms still held securely behind her back.

The phone picks up,  _“'ello?”_

“I found Mrs Willems,” Michael shouts, even as Gavin lets out a displeased huff and shoulders him in the side. Michael simply grunts and glares daggers at him before continuing to speak, “She’s at the safehouse Gavin was staying at, looks like he was trying to keep her safe.”

_“What the fuck?!”_

Gavin curses inwardly, “That’s not-”

_“Gavin, you cocksucker!”_

“I didn’t-”

_“Keep her there, we’ll arrive in ten. I’ll deal with Gavin.”_

Gavin pulls himself upright and stares down at Michael, at the way his nostrils flare and his face is red with barely-contained anger. His fist clenches. But instead of punching, Gavin backs off; Michael is still _Mogar_ , and while he’s never been on the receiving end of his fights, he’s seen how strong the other is, how he can knock someone out in just a few punches to the head, leaving them permanently injured. Even if Elyse were at his side, there’s no way Gavin could take on Michael.

He turns tail and runs.

He barely has time to register a set of keys sitting on the couch and pick them up before he slides out the front door.

Once outside, he makes a beeline for his motorcycle, sliding onto the bike and turning the engine on. He kicks the Sanchez into gear and speeds off down the road in record time.

Gavin struggles to remember the exact location of the FakeHaus base. He knows the neighbourhood, the general turns and directions to take, but he doesn’t know street names or house numbers. He finds his phone in his pocket and is grateful he took out the sim card, so at least he doesn’t have to deal with the barrage of texts and phone calls that are bound to quickly flood his inbox.

After half an hour of combing the streets, Gavin finally finds the mansion. He pulls up outside and retrieves Elyse’s set of keys from his pocket. He finds a small button attached to it and presses it. Sure enough, the large metal gate opens with a groan and whirr of electric machinery. Gavin drives on through. He doesn’t even bother parking his motorcycle in the garage and simply drops it right before the front door, scraping the sides of it on the masonry. He fiddles with Elyse’s keys for a second before finding the right ones for the locks on the door.

He doesn’t see anyone immediately, but he can hear shouting from down the hall. Gavin follows the sounds, footsteps silent on the wooden floor, hands hanging by his sides. When he arrives, he finds James, Joel, Matt and Bruce crowding around the TV, each of them with an Xbox controller in hand and Halo on the screen.

It takes Joel a couple seconds to realise there’s a fifth person in the room, glancing over and spotting him. He instantly pauses the game and smiles at Gavin. “Hey, Gavin, back so soon? Elyse here?”

Gavin barely hides the small wince that threatens to show, but he puts on a smile and shrugs halfheartedly. Bruce stands up from the couch and makes to head out into the living area, only for Gavin to raise a hand and stop him.

“Uh, can I just ask something of you guys?”

James, although confused, nods without hesitation. “Yeah, dude, what?”

“Don’t hurt me?” The four of them crack into laughter, and Gavin chuckles lowly under his breath while they regain their composure before adding on, “I’m serious though, please don’t hurt me.”

“Nah, you’re cool. Besides, Elyse would kill us if we hurt you.”

He can’t help the cringe that slides onto his face that time. “It’s about Elyse actually.” That has their attention, the smile slipping from James’ face and Bruce narrowing his eyes. Gavin shies away from James, concerned about the hulking mass that is staring him down. “Uh, don’t worry, I don’t- I wouldn’t ever, like, go for her. She’s great, don’t get me wrong, but she’s just my friend. A really good friend of mine. It’s just, uh…” He shifts under the weight of their gazes and lets out a small nervous laugh. “I lied to her, a lot. And you guys.”

“Lied… about what?” Matt questions, rising from the couch upon realizing how serious the situation is.

Gavin swallows and just decides to spill it all. “I don’t work at an IT company, and I know my girlfriend is a trained assassin. On the first day I met Elyse I was tired and needed coffee after having spent all night researching an ammunition supplier because FakeHaus had stolen a supply crate and my boss was mad. My boss being Geoff Ramsey, and me being, uh, Vav.”

Gavin has a split second to avoid the punch aimed directly for his head, the fist slamming into the wall to his right. In his blind panic, he quickly continues telling the rest of the story.

“I had no idea who Elyse was but she was nice and I wanted to talk to her.”

James approaches from behind Bruce who swings another fist and just barely grazes Gavin’s nose.

“I lied about who I am and what I do because I didn’t want to scare her away.”

Two muscular arms reach out and grab hold of him by the shirt, halting Gavin’s retreat.

“I saw her at the meeting and I panicked and left.”

Bruce reels his dominant arm back and Gavin pushes at his chest, trying to keep their distance. His eyes close of their own volition and he braces himself, still speaking in a rushed voice.

“Elyse was in danger from my crew, so I took her to a safehouse to try and hide her but they got her. I need your help to save Elyse!”

The punch never comes. Gavin cracks open an eye to see James holding Bruce’s curled up fist back by the wrist, staring at Gavin with a conflicted expression.

“Where. Is. Elyse?” James grinds out. Bruce glances over a shoulder at Joel and Matt.

“They take hostages to a warehouse in Vespucci, I know where it is. I tried to save her, I did, I swear. I never wanted this.” Bruce snorts and looks ready to snap him in half when Joel steps forward and slides around to look at Gavin closer.

“Who _are_ you then?”

“Gavin Free,” he responds without hesitation, “Outside of usual crew work and heists, I do information, security cameras, and sometimes work frontman for the Fake AH Crew. My best friend is Mogar, my girlfriend is Dollface, and I just _really_ want to save Elyse before they hurt her.” Gavin rests his hand on top of the one curled into his shirt, subtly trying to get Bruce to release him. He doesn’t need to try for long.

“Let him go,” Joel says, turning to stare at Bruce. The man hesitates, James still holding onto his wrist and halting him from punching Gavin. “Bruce, I said let him _go_. Matt, call in the rest of the crew; we’re having a meeting. _N_ _ow_.” It takes a couple more seconds, Matt rushing past the two held in a stalemate, before Bruce finally releases his hold on Gavin and lowers his fist. Gavin takes a few rushed steps backwards and holds up Elyse’s keys, offering it to James.

“I saw these on the couch when I ran.” James takes them quickly and holds them tightly in his hands.

Joel steps between Bruce and Gavin before things can escalate again. “Go sit at the table out there, Gavin, we’ll talk it all through when the others arrive.”

“Where are they?” Gavin asks, turning around and walking after Matt. He finds the man sitting at the table already, typing something on his phone.

“We had a security breach last night. Fakes no doubt.” Gavin nods in agreement and pulls out his phone. He opens up his texts to Michael and places it face up on the table. The currently present FakeHaus members lean in closer to peer at the texts, Joel picking up the phone and scrolling through it slowly for their benefit.

“I told my crew I was sick and then went to the safehouse with Elyse. This is what Mogar sent me.” Gavin hears James snicker something about _‘Micoo’_ before returning to serious mode. “Vagabond and Rimmy Tim picked up that I was upset about Elyse and warned me that the crew was going to kidnap her. I left as soon as I found out and texted Elyse to come visit. I lied and said I was-”

“Don’t explain it all right now,” Joel says, passing the phone off to James as he sits down beside Matt, “Wait for the others so you don’t have to repeat yourself.”

“How do we know you’re not lying?” Bruce questions, choosing to remain standing. “I mean, you could just be doing this to get close to us!”

Gavin should have expected that question. “I’m planning on telling you where one of our hideouts is and I just revealed my identity to you. Kinda not the best scenario for leading you into a trap or whatever.”

“You could be desperate,” Bruce counters. Matt nods in agreement off to the side.

“I _am_ desperate!” Gavin’s voice rises in pitch and volume. “They took Elyse! I- I- I tried to get her out of harm’s way, I really did. My own best friend called me a liar, a traitor, and a backstabber. If I didn’t call Elyse away from the mansion she would have been taken, wouldn’t she?”

“You don’t know that,” James snaps.

“James, you fucking woke up with a gun pressed to your forehead, the hell are you on about?” Joel responds with equal sharpness. James sighs heavily and drops into an unoccupied chair, pointedly as far away from Gavin as possible. Joel looks back to Matt, “How far away are the others?”

“They’re just pulling up now actually. They came as quickly as possible.” Gavin’s ears pick up on the dulled sound of car engines and tyres squealing against bricks.

Sure enough, the door bursts open a moment later and a panting Lawrence stumbles in. “What’s happening? What’s the emergency?” His eyes zone in on Gavin and he frowns, confused. “Hi Gavin, what’s up?”

“I’m Vav.”

 _Eloquent_.

Within half a second, Lawrence has a pistol in hand and has fired off a round. Gavin’s instincts barely kick in and he pushes himself away from the table, only to fall flat on his back and have the breath knocked out of him, a squeak following. Meanwhile, James shoves his way between the breathless Gavin and a red-faced Lawrence.

“God dammit, Lawrence!”

“Get out of the way!”

“What’s going on in here?”

“Nothing, Adam-”

“Gavin’s Vav!”

“Oh my God!”

“Who’s Vav?”

“Are you fucking deaf, Omar? Gavin!”

“Oh shit!”

Gavin wheezes and rolls onto his front, sucking in a breath. He quickly speaks over the top of all the shouting. “I am Vav, part of the Fake AH Crew!” Lawrence fires off another shot, a hole appearing just to the left of Gavin's hand. He flinches but continues speaking, “My crew kidnapped Elyse and I tried to stop them. I want to help you get Elyse back.”

“Liar!” Spoole shouts, shoving his way into the house. James keeps himself between the hostile half of the crew and Gavin. Adam glances between the two groups and tries to edge his way slowly towards the table.

“I’m not lying!” Gavin drags himself up to standing and jabs a finger at his eye where he’s certain a purple bruise has already formed. “Mogar gave me this, headbutted my chin, and kicked me in the ribs and the shins multiple times when I tried to keep him away from Elyse as she ran. My own crew’s probably turned against me, I’ve been called a traitor and a backstabber by my own best friend and a cocksucker by Ramsey. I’ve had a really, really bad day and I just want to make sure Elyse is safe.”

“Is he lying?” Adam questions. Lawrence slowly lowers his gun but doesn’t replace it in its holster quite yet.

Joel shakes his head and points at the phone left on the table. “I’ve gone through his messages, he checks out.”

“If they kidnapped Elyse, why don’t we kidnap him and make a trade?”

“That could work, but first, I want a recount of everything.” Joel sits himself down and turns towards Gavin, gesturing for the rest of the crew to come join them. “Tell us how you met, what you did when you meet up, everything.”

Gavin nods slowly, righting his chair and retaking his seat. “Okay, uh, well. We met because I had spent all night trying to research a supplier you stole an ammunition crate from. I went to get coffee before me and Vagabond went to go search for more clues or hints. She just seemed nice to me? I liked talking to her is all. Second and third time we just met up in the café. We talked about stuff, I don’t know. She lied about your names so I didn’t pick up you were FakeHaus, and I did the same.”

Gavin fidgets when Bruce sits right beside him, nervously eyeing the man, but easing when he realises he doesn’t look ready to punch his lights out any time soon.

“Uh, next the Fakes robbed the jewellery store. Geoff wanted to annoy you guys and steal your next hit, and I guess it worked?” There’s a unanimously displeased grunt from the crew, falling quiet quickly and encouraging him to continue. “We had a helicopter but it didn’t have enough seats for us all, so I stayed behind, changed clothes, and began to make my way around town. I bumped into Elyse, who was walking towards the store, and pulled her aside. I didn’t want her to get in trouble or anything.

“Next, we were making deals in an alleyway with a supplier. I stole my friends’ jacket and hat, so when Elyse appeared she didn’t recognise me. As soon as the deal was done, I walked her back home, I didn’t want her to be attacked or anything – but I guess she could have handled herself since she’s in a crew, yeah?”

“She always has a gun or a knife in her handbag,” James says offhandedly.

Gavin nods and inwardly scolds himself; he remembers seeing metal in her purse and he had noticed how heavy her bag was, he should have picked it up quickly. “The next time we met, I was in the bank, trying to mark out the locations of cameras and security alarms. I saw you guys filtering in one by one and knew you were going to rob the place. Then Elyse appeared and I just wanted to get her to safety, so I quickly grabbed her and ran. We went and ate lunch at a diner I like just down the road. Mogar tracked me down and walked in while she was in the bathroom, which was a stroke of luck really, she didn’t see him.”

“She called us saying she was safe and she was checking in on the robbery process,” Lawrence states, “That’s why she was in the bathroom, so you didn’t hear.” Gavin nods again and looks down at his hands on the table; he _really_ should have put all the pieces together ages ago, realised what was happening, and called it off before he got too attached.

“Yeah. Well, we went and hung out at the pier next, that was fun. We just went on rides, ate food, walked around, doing regular stuff. I was just happy to have a normal friend for once, but I guess she wasn’t really _normal_ , huh? Next I went to a mall and stole a hairpiece for Jack because I thought she would appreciate the gift but a worker saw me doing it and called for security, so I ran. I bumped into Elyse on the way. So I t-”

Something sparks in Sean’s eyes and he interrupts to ask, “Oh, wait, the shopping center north west of Maze Bank?”

“Yeah, that one. Why?”

“Elyse got spotted stealing an Xbox game for me there,” Joel explains, “Said she bumped into you and used you as a cover.”

“Yeah, I guess she did. We said we were there together, which was very awkward really, but the guard brushed us off and left us alone and we parted ways. We met up at the park next and she introduced me to Benson and she gave me a cat, a little kitten.”

“What?!” Adam shouts, leaning forward over the table to stare at him pointedly. “She never gave _me_ a cat!”

“Because you have, like, seven.”

“I was wondering about all the fur everywhere,” Gavin says absentmindedly, “A lot for one dog. Anyways, I next saw her at the warehouse. I was just… shocked I guess? I panicked and left. I went home and texted Elyse saying I wanted to talk to her the following morning. Only when my crew arrived, Vagabond and Rimmy Tim told me they knew where you lived and how to break in and that they were planning on kidnapping Elyse. So I left and texted Elyse that I wanted her to come stay at my place for the night and talk to her, that it was urgent.”

“No wonder she left so quickly,” Matt mumbles quietly.

“So I invited her to a safehouse, told my crew I was sick, and we played some games. She then invited me over here, and I was just… I always thought of you guys as a bunch of mingy smegheads, but you aren’t? You’re kinda like my own crew.”

“Is he insulting us?” Spoole questions, glancing over at Joel and Lawrence.

Meanwhile, Bruce’s metaphorical hackles raise, “The fuck’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re like a family,” Gavin reiterates, easing the crease in Adam’s brow and the hunch of James’ shoulders, “You care about each other a bunch and it’s obvious how much Elyse loves you all. I wasn’t really comfortable staying here, I didn’t really trust you guys, so we headed back to the safehouse. When we got there, we played some Portal 2 and then she fell asleep. Only when morning came, we were woken up by someone at the front door. Mich- I mean, Mogar came in and saw Elyse. Elyse tried to shoot him, I got in the way and tried to calm him down, but it didn’t work.”

Bruce snorts, “Fucking hot headed asshole.”

“Yeah, he is sometimes,” Gavin says with a shrug, surprising them all. “Well, I held him back for a short while, but he kneed me in the side and punched me. He got away and Elyse tried to climb out a window but he got to her first and trapped her. I tried to drag him off of her but got kicked in the shin multiple times and headbutted. I knew I couldn’t win against Mogar so I ran to get your help.”

“How badly was she injured?” James questions, leaning in unnervingly close.

“Uhm, I saw him punch her stomach and she might have hit her head against the wall and the floor pretty hard and maybe hurt her arms, I don’t know.”

“How badly _will_ they hurt her?” Gavin winces visibly and goes silent, not wanting to answer. “ _Gavin_.”

“Not that bad, I don’t think. Usually Ry- Vagabond does the torturing, but he knows Elyse is my friend, so he probably won’t do it. Or won’t be harsh on her at least.”

Spoole quickly stands up from his seat and announces, “But Vagabond’s a psychopath!”

Gavin snorts.

“He has an addiction to diet coke, wanted to be an astronaut as a kid, and used to be a model.” Gavin smiles smugly at the spit take the entire crew does. “Just like me, you think we’re exactly what the media wants us to be, but you don’t even know half the story.”

That makes Joel snort, “Well, yeah, Vav’s a smooth talking asshole, you’re just a goofy idiot, no wonder we didn’t make the connection.”

“Gee, thanks,” he deadpans in response.

“We’re off track,” James says, catching most of the crew’s attention. “Gavin, tell us where Elyse is being held. We’ll call them up and ask for a trade for you. If they say no, we’ll storm their warehouse.”

Gavin winces but shakes his head, leaning back in his chair. “They can read me like an open book, even if it’s just my voice. They’ll know I’m not being held hostage and they won’t believe you unless they hear my voice and see video proof I’m still alive. They probably think I’m siding with you guys. I can tell you where the warehouse is but I want to come with you to get Elyse back. And can you maybe, like, not kill my crew? I kinda still care about them, even if they’re being right pricks.”

None of them give him a clean-cut answer, mostly mumbling incoherent words and looking away, avoiding his gaze. Gavin supposes that’s to be expected and simply nods.

“Hey, look, I don’t care if you punch them a lot, just don’t shoot them or kill them, yeah?”

Bruce brightens up at the compromise, “Okay, that’s better. So, who’s going?”

Spoole brightens up, “Oh! I can-”

“No.”

Gavin’s surprised by the whole crew chorusing the single word, looking around curiously.

“No, Sean,” Lawrence clarifies, “Sorry, but you kinda suck at close combat and being sneaky, so maybe you could stay in the getaway vehicles with Omar and me.”

“Aw, man, what?”

Matt, who is closest to Spoole, reaches over to pat his shoulder comfortingly. “Maybe next time.” Spoole sinks down into his seat with a sigh but nods anyways, resigning himself to his fate.

“So!” Joel claps and rubs his hands together, grabbing everyone’s attention, “Gavin, tell us where this warehouse is and how we can get inside undetected.”

* * *

“It’s still really hard to believe you’re…” James waves an arm at him.

Gavin tilts his head curiously. “I’m… what? Vav? A criminal?” He nods and Gavin shrugs, trying not to jostle Bruce on the other side of him. “Yeah, it’s kinda great though. When I meet new members they get really nervous and look up to me a bunch. Jeremy, Rimmy Tim, was smitten with me from day zero. He was just very shocked when he saw how I reacted to a dead body - that being almost gobbing up my breakfast! Don’t get me wrong, I know how to work a gun just fine, but being a killer isn’t what I’m all about.”

Omar fidgets from the front of the car, but his driving remains steady. “I haven’t killed anyone before.”

“I’ve killed maybe… two hundred people?” Matt’s head snaps around from the front of the car to stare at him, the others doing the same. Gavin shrugs yet again. “What? I have a lot of accidents involving grenades. Doesn’t make looking at dead people any easier.”

“Accidents? News says they were all intentional.”

“Nope, more often than not I play around with them whilst waiting, accidentally pull the pin, and then toss the thing out of sheer panic.” James chuckles from his right and Gavin lets slip a smug smile.

Gavin spots an amused grin on Bruce’s face as he lifts up his communicator and speaks into it. “You still keeping up alright? Don’t need gas or anything?”

“All good,” comes Lawrence’s reply with a crackle of static.

Gavin points at the street on the left up ahead, telling them to take it slow as they slip down a narrow street. “It’s just at the end, on the right. Park a small bit away, I’ll take you around back.”

“Don’t think this needs to be said but,” Bruce turns towards him and Gavin leans away with widened eyes as he faces the man, noticing the dark look in his eyes, promising nothing but anguish and torment, “I will personally hurt you if this ends badly or we find out you lied to us.”

Gavin’s quick to shake his head, “No, no, it’s okay. Like, I was the one who helped install the security systems, I think only Ryan knows how to take them down.”

“Ryan?” he asks, befuddled.

“Yeah, Vagabond.”

James tilts his head, “Isn’t his name James?”

“Yeah, but he goes by his middle name.”

The two nod in understanding and are quick to drop the subject.

The vehicle rolls to a stop alongside the road and Omar turns around in his seat. “I’ll keep the engine on in case of a fast escape, keep in touch over comms if anything goes south.” They all nod in agreement and James opens his door, ushering Gavin out of the car. The engine of the second car rumbles slowly behind them, car doors opening and closing quietly as Adam and Joel join them. Gavin is quick to rush over to the nearby outdated machinery storage building, the metal grating cold under his hand. The others glance at him curiously and Gavin waves them closer before explaining.

“There’s a camera further down pointed at the road, it can’t see the car right now but it would spot us if we were to walk up to the front of the building. Keep behind me and stay silent, I know the way inside.”

That said, Gavin spins on his heels and takes off at a brisk walk, keeping in the shadows as a precaution. Pavement crunches softly under his shoes when he rounds the corner, making sure to duck behind the provided cover such as wooden pallets and occasionally an oil barrel or shipping container. The light from street lamps behind them illuminates the way but leaves them relatively unseen as Gavin slides between a crate and the wall of the warehouse, appearing at a coded back entrance. Gavin taps at the security screen but frowns when he spots a different signature code in the bottom right.

“Oh c’mon!” he hisses lowly. Adam leans over to poke his side, silently asking what the problem was. “They’ve changed the code. Don’t worry, there are vents I can sneak through to get inside. I’ll get in and then unlock it manually from the inside. Find somewhere to hide, I’ll be gone for five minutes max.”

“Vav- _Gavin_ , if this is some… some kind of _trick-_ ”

“No no!” Gavin interrupts Bruce, “I swear, it’s not, it’s just… Michael must have told them what happened, they probably think I betrayed them so they’re taking precautions. I’ll get you inside and we can find Elyse together, don’t worry.” The group all look on edge, Joel staring at Gavin quizzically and the others awaiting a response.

It’s Matt who finally nods and agrees, “Okay, be quick.” With a small wave, Gavin rushes along the back of the building, keeping his eyes trained on the wall. He ignores the hushed, angered voices from behind him, arguing amongst themselves as they slip into hiding.

Eventually, Gavin spots the conditioning unit and pauses, glancing around. He finds a crate and pushes it towards the wall, trying to keep the noise to a minimum. Once it’s close enough, Gavin clambers on top of the crate and taps the maintenance cover beside the air conditioning unit. It rattles and he grins, digging his fingers around the rusted edges and pulling. It groans softly at first before coming away with a pang. He stumbles and almost tumbles clean off the crate. As soon as Gavin regains his balance, he reaches out and grabs the edge of the now-open vent, stopping the vibrating.

He’s only ever checked the warehouse vent schematics before, never actually been inside of them, but Gavin holds the images in his mind, tracing the path that leads the closest towards the back entrance. The only opening nearby is one of the storage rooms, which is right next door to the communal room. Gavin prays to whatever existing deity that they’re watching TV or playing games so they won’t hear him.

Sure enough, Gavin arrives at a vent opening a minute or two later. He snags his fingers on the vent grating and pushes, hearing it squeal and whine, metal scraping against metal. It takes him two more heaves before it finally gives. Gavin falls forward and smacks his chest on the edge of the vent entrance, hissing as a jagged nail stabs at his skin but doesn’t break through. Ever so slowly, Gavin wriggles himself out of the entrance and drops down. He sets the grating to the side to be fixed later.

Distantly, he hears shouting, loud and raucous, and Gavin’s not sure if they’re shouting at Elyse or a game or a show but it sounds brutal. Dust wafts through the air when he moves, a small amount of light filtering through the glass door at the end of the room as he approaches. Gavin finds the door unlocked when he turns the handle. And the hallway outside is abandoned, empty. The shouting becomes clearer and Gavin swallows when he catches a couple sentences.

“Punch, punch, harder you asshole!”

“Stop that, you’re making me look bad!”

“Give her what she deserves!”

Pushing aside the rush of fear that attempts to flood him, Gavin silently hurries down the hall, spotting the back entrance at the end. He turns the deadbolt and hears the electronic device whirr before beeping positively. When he opens the door he’s met with silence, darkness.

Gavin takes a single step outside, keeping his arm on the door, and whispers. “Hey, it’s me, we’re in, let’s go.” Almost instantly, the other crew’s heads all pop up out of hiding and rush towards him. Gavin is quick to take a step backwards and begin leading them towards the common area, passing storage and various other unused rooms. He hears the shrill shriek of Michael’s rage and a loud clatter from around the corner and can’t help but wince. Footsteps stomp behind him and the shouting dies down.

Gavin reaches the door first and yanks it open. He stumbles inside with FakeHaus tumbling after him. All eyes snap onto him. Jeremy drops his Xbox controller as his character on screen dies. Ray looks up from the chair in the corner, phone in hand, and quirks a single eyebrow. Geoff’s eyes widen before he locks onto Gavin. His eyebrows slacken and lips turn down.

Gavin feels like he’s not going to ever forget that look of sheer disappointment.

“You motherfucker!”

A squeal escapes Gavin when Michael tackles into him, the breath being forced out of his lungs. Cold cement stings his shoulder blades and Gavin’s worried he might have grazes on his skin from the sheer force of the impact. When he cracks open an eye, he sees Michael with a frown and a mixture of confusion and betrayal on his face, but mostly anger.

Before Michael can throw a punch though, Bruce slams himself bodily into the man and knocks him off of Gavin. He rolls over onto his feet and glances back just in time to spot Jeremy square up Adam and throw a punch. James approaches Geoff as the man stands up and raises his fists. Gavin starts to wonder where their guns went but then remembers they had a rule that no guns were to be used in the warehouse in fear of an escaped hostage using it against them. The only backup weapon is hidden behind a panel in the roof somewhere. How lucky.

By the time Matt and Jack grapple and drag each other to the floor, Gavin’s already darting to the other side of the room. Ray stands up but makes no move to stop him. Gavin hears footsteps from behind and spots Joel walking towards Ray, who mirrors his lack of interest in joining the fight. Probably for the best: he’s certainly not the strongest of their crew.

Before he can find out who wins or loses the fight, Gavin’s out of the room and making his way towards the interrogation room, where he knows they keep kidnapped hostages. He didn’t see Ryan back there and the only thing on his mind is the thought of Ryan trying to get Elyse to talk, knives in hand as she waits and stubbornly refuses to respond truthfully.

He rounds a corner and finds the room. The lock on the door hasn’t been changed and Gavin plugs in the code and rattles the handle until it beeps and unlocks. His nose crinkles at the foul stench that assaults his nose, throat tightening. Musky iron that settles on his tongue heavily and makes him want to gag. But the blood he sees on the ground is brown and flaking, most likely from past victims. After turning around twice and finding the room empty, Gavin steps out and shuts the door behind him. He momentarily relishes in the burst of untainted, fresh air. Gavin glances up and down the hall before rushing back towards the communal room, hoping to get a hint from someone as to where Elyse could be.

Gavin freezes when he rounds a corner, staring down the barrel of a gun with a panting, bruised Geoff on the other end. He instinctively holds his hands up and watches as Geoff wipes a trail of blood from his nose. “You… need to stop,” Geoff breathes out slowly.

“Geoff, please, don’t, she doesn’t deserve this, can’t you just let her go?”

“You fucking betrayed us!”

Gavin winces but shakes his head, “No, I didn’t I didn’t betray you or anything!”

“Michael told us what you did, he told us _everything_.”

“You were going to hurt Elyse! I had to do _something_. She’s my _friend_.” Geoff frowns at him and Gavin spots the waver in his arm. Gavin dips his head but keeps his arms raised, showing off his unarmed status. “I just wanted to have a normal friend and I just so happened to pick the one girl who was in our rival crew. It was just pure bad luck. I should’ve read the signs, I know, but I was just happy to be doing _non_ -crew related fun things for once. When was the last time we visited the park? Do you know how long it’s been since we visited the pier and went on one of the rides?”

Geoff lets out a heavy sigh and shakes his head, “You’re ridiculous, you know that?” Gavin just shrugs with a sheepish smile on his face, lifting his head up to look at the other man. Geoff stares at him long and hard, his expression twitching just the minutest of fractions occasionally as he seems to argue with himself. Apparently Gavin’s look of pleading and hopefulness isn’t helping him judging by how he quickly turns his head away and withdraws his handgun.

“Ryan took her into the kitchen and said to not disturb him, something about making cleaning up quicker. If you want her alive, go get her now. We’ll talk about whether or not you can stay in the crew.”

Gavin is quick to nod and takes a step to rush past him.

Then he pauses and turns to Geoff.

“Have you killed any of FakeHaus?”

“Not yet,” Geoff says with a shake of his head.

Gavin nods and then straightens himself up, “I want to stay here, in the crew, with you guys. You _know_ I do.” Geoff quirks an eyebrow, silently asking him to further elaborate. “You’re my family and it’ll only make things worse if I leave. The crew is my life, I can’t just _leave_ it like that. I’ll just… stir up trouble in some other city and that’ll make things harder for you. Meg will probably go with me, so you’ll lose her too. Can’t I just stay here and regain your trust?”

“That’ll take a while.” Gavin nods in agreement but waits eagerly for a proper response. After a moment of contemplation, Geoff gives a small nod. “I’ll consider it. In the end it’ll be up to what the crew wants, but I’ll ask them about it.”

Brushing aside precautions, Gavin surges forward and drags Geoff into a hug. “Thank you, thank you, Geoffrey!” Although startled, Geoff pats his side with his free hand for a couple seconds before shoving him away.

“Go on, get going, just don’t take it out on Ryan.”

Gavin swallows but nods, quickly turning on his heels and darting in the opposite direction once again. He can only wonder what Ryan’s done; he’s been _known_ to be one of the least stable crew members, Michael coming second with his short fuse and righteous fury. And to move the interrogation and questioning into the kitchen for easier cleaning up? That just puts a stone of worry in his gut, something that weighs him down and makes his thighs quake with each step he takes.

He doesn’t dare slow down when he spots the kitchen door up ahead, skidding to a stop and roughly yanking on the door handle. He sucks in a breath before shoving the door open, already expecting the worst.

Instead, he finds a rather startled Elyse and Ryan sitting at the table with a tea and diet coke respectively in their hands.

A split second passes and Elyse’s face lights up.

“Gavin!” she calls, standing and shoving her chair backwards.

“Elyse,” he breathes out, a grin coming to his face as she rushes forwards, making to meet her halfway. With something giddy in his step, Gavin all but jumps onto Elyse, a heave coming out of her as she manages to hold his weight up, even with legs tucked around her waist and Gavin all but vibrating excitedly. “You’re okay, you’re okay, oh god.”

“Yeah, I’m all good, it’s fine. I didn’t know what happened to you, I thought something bad had happened!” Gavin pulls his head back and snickers, finally releasing his hold on her and dropping to the ground.

“Well, yeah, I got a couple bruises, nothing I can’t handle.” Sure enough, her nose is a little bruised, her lip split, and Gavin can see a bit of bandage under the frayed hem of her blouse.

“So, if you’re here…” Ryan begins, gesturing out the door, “What happened out there?”

Gavin rubs a hand at he back of his head and lets out a small laugh, “Well, uh, I maybe bought in a bit of backup.”

“Backup?” A frown comes to Ryan’s face. “But Geoff told B-Team to not trust you.”

Elyse’s eyes widen when she hears a shout from outside and she looks at Gavin, “Really? FakeHaus? You bought them here?”

“Ahaha, surprise?”

Elyse groans and rolls her eyes, but there’s a smile on her face. Ryan looks on disapprovingly but doesn’t say much else on the matter. Elyse finally nods in understanding and grabs hold of Gavin’s wrist, dragging him along. “Come on, let’s go see what havoc they’ve caused before they kill each other.”

Said havoc includes a half-conscious Adam being supported by a bruised and battered James who settles him into the couch on the far side of the room whilst Michael and Bruce continue their struggle on the floor, the two of them refusing to let go of the other. Matt has his face being pressed to the ground by Jeremy, repeatedly saying in a monotonous voice, “Ow. Ow. Ow.” Geoff and Jack are nursing each other’s wounds, occasionally casting a nasty glance across the room whilst Joel and Ray seem to be mostly talking off to the side, looking unharmed and unruffled by the drama in their general vicinity.

They glance up when the trio enter the room, all of them looking confused. Ryan frowns at Jeremy and says lowly, “Let him go.” Geoff opens his mouth to object but Jack says something under her breath to him and he drops it. Jeremy looks between them all before retreating. Matt pushes himself up to standing and makes his way over towards Adam and James. Michael and Bruce seem to have come to a stalemate, neither willing to back down quite yet. James, meanwhile, abandons Adam’s side in favour of running towards Elyse and literally dragging her up from the ground in his excitement.

“You’re alright, oh that’s brilliant, we thought they’d hurt you.”

“Why _didn’t_ you hurt her?” Geoff questions, frowning.

Ryan simply shrugs, “I mean, she’s nice, didn’t deserve it. Plus, she puts up with Gavin, anyone who can do that is good in my books.” Gavin lets out an indignant noise and pouts at him but Ryan just smiles smugly.

Joel and Ray meander closer, the latter asking, “So, are we still fighting? Kinda don’t wanna do that.”

With an irritable sigh, Geoff nods his agreement and stands up, rubbing a hand across his already darkening eye. He turns his unimpressed glower to Michael and Bruce, still lying on the ground. “You two, knock it off, come on.” Michael glowers at him then over at Gavin, but releases Bruce nevertheless. As soon as Bruce realises Michael’s no longer fighting him, he shoves the other away and quickly stands up, chest heaving. Michael grumbles and pulls himself upright, limping his way over to an abandoned seat and all but flopping down into it.

That leaves Gavin standing between the two opposed crews, fidgeting in place as he struggles to think of a solution.

Elyse bats at James’ shoulder and he places her down on the ground, watching as she quickly walks over to Gavin. She settles a hand on his shoulder, grounds him, and gives him an appreciative smile. “Thank you, for everything.”

“Wot, even for lying to you?”

“Well, I kinda lied to you too, so fair’s fair.” Gavin simply nods in agreement, a soft giggle escaping him at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Geoff squints at them before clearing his throat, “Well, it seems like we’re at a bit of a stalemate here.” Joel makes to open his mouth but Bruce squints at him and he quickly closes it once again. “Any thoughts?” Although not indicated, Gavin _knows_ the question is being directed at him specifically.

He ends up shrugging. “I mean, I don’t see what the issue is? You’re my crew, and _you’re_ like a brother to me, and I _know_ we’ve spent the past few years hating FakeHaus but I spent barely a single day with them and I think they’re kinda alright.”

“Kinda?” Matt questions.

James snorts and nods, “Yeah, not  _kinda_ , we’re fucking awesome.” Elyse’s lips thin into a line and she stares at James, indicating he’s anything _but_ awesome. Gavin giggles again but receives a disapproving look from Jack.

“Gavin,” she says, catching his attention, “What would _you_ like us to do?”

He blinks slowly, glancing over at Geoff and the rest of his crew. They’re all staring at him, waiting for his answer. Elyse gives his shoulder a final squeeze and drops her arm but continues to remain by his side. Gavin simply shrugs, trying to think of a good idea. “I don’t know, you guys don’t get along so it’d be a bit much to ask you guys to be friends but… maybe no killing each other? That’d be nice.”

“So… you want the treaty back again?” Geoff questions, looking a bit puzzled. He nods quickly and turns to look at FakeHaus, at the confused frown on Bruce’s face. Joel meanders over to him and bumps Bruce’s side, knocking him out of his thoughts.

Joel smiles at Gavin, “Well… Elyse, what would _you_ like to happen?”

“Same thing, you don’t have to be friends but I liked talking to Ryan, don’t see why I should hate him.” Something happy flutters across Ryan’s expression and he flashes a bit of teeth in his smile. Elyse turns to face Bruce and Joel fully. “You can still hate each other but you should coincide instead of trying to compete against each other. Everyone knows monopolies are shitty anyway.” James nods in agreement from his place checking on Adam, who seems to be blinking in and out of consciousness.

Geoff stares at the other crew warily, like he’s not sure how to open up the conversation next, and FakeHaus is doing the same. Gavin side glances Elyse who looks equally as lost. He figures he needs something to break the ice, figuratively speaking.

“Hey, uh, Ryyyyaaaan…” Said man stiffens when Gavin says his name like that: it can only mean trouble. Gavin smiles anyways and says, “If you flip three coins…”

Michael groans and grabs a nearby couch cushion to muffle his yelling.

Ryan steps closer menacingly and Gavin automatically flinches. “I don’t care what you say, if you flip three coins, there are only six possible outcomes, because there is no _‘order’_ to which you can count them.”

“But...“ Joel begins, looking down and counting on his fingers as he speaks, “You have a head, tails, tails, then tails, head, tails, then tails-”

“ _No,_ ” Ryan interrupts, jabbing a finger at him, “This doesn’t concern you and your crew. Besides, if there is one head and two tails then it doesn’t matter the position of the two tails, it’s just two tails!”

“He _has_ got a point,” Matt says with a shrug.

“But what if you flip a single coin three times in a row?” Adam asks.

Geoff huffs, “That’s an _entirely different_ _question_ and Ryan would _still_ be correct.”

“No it’s not and no he wouldn’t.”

“Shut up Gavin!” Michael shouts, tossing his cushion haphazardly at him, “You can’t keep bringing this up!”

Adam yelps in surprise as the cushion hits him in the side.

“But I’m right!”

“He’s got a _point_ ,” James reasons.

Bruce sighs and pulls up his communicator, “Hey, backup, get your asses in here. You especially Lawrence, you’re the smart one.”

“What?” the voice on the other end crackles, “What’s happening?” Bruce just sighs. He keeps the communications on and lets the conversation flow through.

“There’s eight outcomes!”

“Gavin just- just SHUT UP! STOP talking about FUCKING COINS!”

“I’m _right!_ ”

“He _is_ right.”

“No! No, Gavin’s a fucking _idiot!_ You don’t even _know_ him!”

“Oi!”

“Well, _I_ know him, and yeah, kinda an idiot, but he’s making sense.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> **[ _why cant we be friends_ plays in the distance] **and with that its just one more chapter to go! its very short and is mostly just to show you what happens afterwards****


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An exasperated sigh leaves Elyse and she asks, “What’re the Fakes doing _this_ time?”  
>  “I’m not certain on the details but it involved the FakeHaus mansion and a large amount of fart gas.” Elyse groans and rolls her eyes.  
> “Are these even grown, adult men or are we surrounded by literal children in disguise?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just a short epilogue for happy ending thanks for sticking through all of this!!

_I don’t care if we’re riding on a Pink Cloud,_  
_We’re riding on a Pink Cloud,_  
_Never gonna come down,_  
_Never gonna come down!_

* * *

“Are you feeling better now that you’re not the one stuck behind the counter?” Gavin questions, wrapping his hands around the warm ceramic cup.

“Of course, but these mochas suck, someone needs to teach the new guy how to do it properly.” They both side-glance the young man standing behind the espresso machine, fumbling with the group handle and ending up spitting water out along with coffee grounds.

The two of them devolve into a fit of giggles before Gavin says, “I much prefer your mochas, I’ve missed them.”

“Aw, so sweet.” Elyse shuffles and smooths down her black skirt before lifting her gaze and saying, “Maybe I’ll sneak behind the counter next time and make it myself.” Gavin’s face lights up with a smile and he tilts his head.

“Now who’s the sweet one?” Elyse responds by poking her tongue out and sipping at her hot drink. She pulls a face, picks up a sachet, adds the sugar, and stirs it in with a provided stick. Her bracelet jingles on her right wrist and Gavin snickers. “You don’t _have_ to wear the bracelet. You know I stole that from the store FakeHaus was planning on stealing from, right?”

“Yeah, but I like it and I _want_ to wear it. Plus, _you_ gave it to me, even more reason to wear it.”

“Careful, you’ll make James jealous.”

Elyse’s smile turns into more of a smirk which she hides behind her drink and mutters, “Good, he’s been trying to drag me into the bitch-off between the crews for the past few weeks, even though I say all the time I don’t want to be involved.”

Gavin can’t help but shrug and look off to the side, “Well, I can’t say the idea hasn’t caught my attention occasionally…” Elyse gasps and lightly bats a hand at Gavin’s forearm. “Wot? I never said I _did_ join in, just that I thought some of their ideas were hilarious. You can’t deny that you’ve been tempted to try and get a hit against the Fakes every once awhile.”

“Okay, yeah, true, but the stray cats and dogs thing _was_ really great. What ever happened to them all?”

“Oh, we slipped them off to our suppliers and their families, we keep in contact and they send us pictures of the animals. Speaking of!” Gavin pulls out his phone and opens his photos. It takes him a second to find the correct one before he slides the device over to Elyse to see. “Smee’s growing up!”

Elyse crowds in closer and rests her head in her palm. “Aw, he’s adorable. Is he going to get any presents for Christmas?”

“Of course! Lindsay already made him his own little stocking.” He swipes past a couple pictures – Jack waving from a helicopter above Maze Bank whilst Michael holds a rocket launcher over his shoulder, Bruce and Geoff flailing their arms at each other as they shout whilst being surrounded by styrofoam packing peanuts, Ryan asleep with a tabby cat on his chest as Jeremy and Adam coo over the scene from the background, Michael caught mid-throw with the Xbox controller only just starting to make contact with James’ face and Matt staring at the camera dully – before stopping at Smee with his head inside of a red stocking with his name written on it as Meg and Lindsay lie on the floor behind him, their heads thrown back with laughter.

“He’s the sweetest.”

Gavin nods in agreement and returns his phone to his pocket. Something comes to his mind and he places his drink down on the table, lowering his voice. “Hey, I heard about Sean and Joel.”

Elyse pauses momentarily before shrugging and responding, “It’s not like they’re _dead_ , they’re actually doing really good on their own. They keep in contact occasionally. Besides, I heard about Ray.” Gavin nods and mimics Elyse.

“Not like he’s _dead_. He sometimes pops in to say hi. You remember when that supplier went missing when he was meant to make a weapons deal with Bruce? That was Ray.” Elyse curses under her breath and quickly pulls out her phone, sending off a text. Gavin hums and taps a finger at the table, bouncing one of his legs. “What’s FakeHaus planning on doing to get at FAHC this time?”

Elyse shrugs, “Oh, you know, the usual. I think Bruce wants to steal the next electronics shipment crate.”

“Again?” Gavin groans, flopping backwards in his seat and making the chair scrape on the ground. A woman to their right glances at them but doesn’t pay the pair much attention otherwise as she departs.

“Again,” Elyse confirms. “Also, why the late-notice meeting?”

“Oh, wanted to get you out of the mansion.”

She quirks an eyebrow. “Do I want to know why?”

“Well, you won’t want to be going back anytime soon, I can tell you that.” Gavin shrugs and doesn’t even bother trying to hide his smug expression.

An exasperated sigh leaves Elyse and she asks, “What’re the Fakes doing _this_ time?”

“I’m not certain on the details but it involved the FakeHaus mansion and a large amount of fart gas.” Elyse groans and rolls her eyes.

“Are these even grown, adult men or are we surrounded by literal children in disguise?” Gavin giggles and shrugs. “Well, I should at least give you a heads up that your next shipment of ammunition may contain a certain bald, bearded, burly man.”

Gavin splutters and grabs a napkin to wipe the drink from his chin, “Oh, yeah, well, fair’s fair. They kinda _did_ shave his head.”

“I have no idea how he slept through all of that.”

“Geoff stole some of Meg’s Chloroform.”

Elyse nods and can’t help but smile as she asks, “Are Lindsay and Meg going to be at the games night tomorrow?”

“Of course, no way they’re going to miss a single night; they love watching the rest of the idiots get drunk and forget how much they dislike each other. Remember what happened last time with Adam and Ryan?” Elyse nods and waves her phone at him.

“I have footage, I use it as blackmail regularly, Adam probably hates me for it.”

Gavin giggles and points at her, saying, “You’re evil, why are all the girls I know evil? Anyways, no one can hate you, you’re a universal constant.”

“Thanks. And Jack’s not _that_ evil, she’s really sweet.”

Gavin snorts and says, “Two game nights ago, Jack full on body-slammed Bruce and got him into a headlock because he threatened to burn down the penthouse, which she had only just redecorated after the last fire Omar set in there.”

Elyse ponders for a second before nodding and shrugging her shoulders. “…okay you have me there. But she’s great to hang with.” Gavin finds he can’t argue and simply nods in agreement. “So, tomorrow night, huh? Who do you think’s going to win?”

“I’ll bet you a thousand dollars that the FAHC are going to beat FakeHaus for the fourth time in a row.”

Elyse blows a raspberry and rolls her eyes exaggeratedly, “Pfft, need I tell you the countless sleepless nights Lawrence has spent binge-playing Mario Party with CPUs?”

“Does he even have a life?”

“More of a life than we do if we’re gossiping about him not having a life.”

“The bet though, you in or out?”

“Oh, I’m all in, I’ll take my chances,” Elyse responds without hesitation.

“Bring along your whistle, you can be the referee and call out cheaters.” Elyse opens her mouth to respond but Gavin quickly adds on, “No playing favourites.”

“Please, if anything I go harder on my own crew than yours.”

Gavin tilts his head and asks, “Which crew are you referring to? You’re basically part of both; the Fakes say you’re the best part of FakeHaus and they’d accept you as an official member in a split second.”

“Yeah, and you're the same, don't try to pin it on me like I'm the favourite.”

“You _are_ though. We  _both_ are. We're special.”

“Uh huh, yeah, sure.” She takes a sip from her drink and watches as Gavin taps a finger and starts talking.

“I wonder how the media would take it if we switched crews all of a sudden.”

“Oooh, imagine the headlines;” Elyse’s voice switches tone to something vaguely mocking, “Willems VS Willems, Husband VS Wife, Crew VS Crew, who will come out on top? Find out at 6pm tonight!”

“We should do it just for the shits and giggles, it would drive the news reporters and journalists bonkers, right?” Elyse nods and drinks from her mocha again, finally finishing the drink off. “Well, let's hope they don't find out about our game nights; a journalist somehow caught wind that the crews have an agreement to not murder each other. Wrote an article about it and everything, some people might think they're going to become allies.”

Elyse can't help but snicker, “If only they knew the truth.”

Gavin perks up and his eyes widen, “Oh, did you hear? Treyco says there's a couple new crews moving into Los Santos, so keep your eyes peeled for any suspicious people. We don't know if they're _evil_ or not.”

“Didn't you once used to think the same about FakeHaus?” Elyse questions knowingly, “And how did that turn out for you?”

“Well, yeah, but that changed once we got to know you guys. Besides, the crews apologised to each other and got over it.”

“Right, Michael sent me a basket of exotic butters as an apology.”

“Yeah, Meg told him off for that. Which reminds me,” Gavin fidgets with his hands and tilts his head at Elyse. “I remember you saying your crew has kissed each other, was that true?”

“Yeah, they do it as a joke mostly, to annoy each other or make a point, and it was mostly Joel who did it, it’s great.”

Gavin smiles and taps his fingers on the table before asking another question. “It’s really dumb, but Meg and Lindsay keep talking a lot and I know they’re talking about me or Michael or both of us – I bet they’re planning something. I didn’t really think much of it but I saw Meg smile at me when I walked into the living room and then just… lean over and kiss Lindsay’s cheek before leaving. And… I don’t really care? I thought it was _cute_ maybe- I don’t know!”

Elyse snickers and says, “Maybe you should kiss Michael as payback?” Gavin splutters and Elyse just chuckles at him.

“You’re not helping!”

“No, but I _am_ being serious.”

“No you’re not.”

“Yes I am.”

“No way!”

“So you’re not against the idea?”

“Stop that!”

“That’s not a no.”

“Elyyyyyyse.”

The man behind the counter slides out and approaches them before they can continue being childish, picking up their empty cups and saying they need to close up. When he gets out of earshot, Gavin stands up and passes Elyse her handbag. “So, where are we sleeping over tonight?”

“Well, considering the mansion is probably filled with fart gas, I’d say the penthouse.” Gavin chuckles but nods and pulls on the jacket he had stolen from Lindsay before leaving the penthouse. It doesn’t quite fit him, but it’s comfortable and doesn’t hang from his shoulders like Michael’s does.

“Great! Meg just got back from another trip, she always looks forward to talking with you.”

“Don’t lie to me, she just came back to see Michael get wasted, take his shirt off, and drunk-wrestle with someone.”

Gavin can’t help but chuckle and nod in agreement. “Yeah, but you gotta agree, it’s right funny.” Elyse laughs softly with him and pulls open the door to the café, the bell chiming overhead. Gavin slips past her when she holds it for him and makes his way towards his motorbike. Before he can get on, however, Elyse reaches out and nabs the keys from his hand.

“Oh no you don’t, I’m still hurting from the _last_ time I let you drive.”

Gavin almost instantly starts pouting, lower lip stuck out and eyes wide, pleading. “C’mon, Elyse, that was a _one time_ thing! The guy just… appeared out of nowhere! Besides, you’re just as bad a driver as me!”

“I’m driving,” she announces proudly and swings her leg over the bike before Gavin can continue arguing any further. Resigning himself to his fate, he drops into the space behind her as the engine starts up. He finds her handbag being placed in his lap and barely has half a second to grab both it and Elyse before the stand is kicked up and the brakes released, accelerator revving the engine and taking off swiftly. He’s not sure if they have a better or worse chance of getting into a crash with Elyse or himself driving. Either way, she knows where she’s going; she’s driven this route multiple times in the past few months, and Gavin can’t wait for the cheer of his crew to greet him when he returns with Elyse to prepare for tomorrow’s game night.

Gavin wonders what the journalists would ever make of it if they found out the truth behind two of Los Santos’ largest, meanest crews; rather than shooting each other, they’ve come to pulling pranks and having game nights on the regular to try and one up the other. His phone buzzes multiple times with new messages from the group chat and Gavin risks slipping his hand into his pocket to pull it out. It takes him a second to decipher all the nicknames Elyse gave his contacts. A smile comes to his face when he reads them, more popping up as he goes.

####  MASSIVE ~~ORGY~~ GROUP CHAT

******_Baby Boy:_ ** _Prepare to be revenge-fucked tomorrow night!_ ****  
**_LIL J:_ ** _...I’ll bring the lube?_ ****  
**_LindsAYYYY:_ ** _No fucking in the penthouse!_ ****  
**_Our Lord And Savior:_ ** _Thats hilarious coming from you Mrs Jones._ ****  
**_Micoo:_ ** _Hey!_ ****  
**_#1 Non-Anime Dad:_ ** _Should I prepare my ass before or after you arrive?_  
**_#1 Anime Dad:_ ** _Don’t! At all!_ ****  
**_#1 Non-Anime Dad:_ ** _Too late._ ****  
**_Cueball Head:_ ** _You’re a bunch of assholes._ ****  
**_Rye-Bread:_ ** _Aww you didn’t like our present?_ ****  
**_El Niño:_ ** _Bensons traumatised! I thought the new treaty specified no hurting pets?_ ****  
**_Micoo:_ ** _But he wasnt hurt, fart gas never killed someone._ ****  
**_Out Lord And Savior:_ ** _Youd be surprised._ ****  
**_Baby Boy:_ ** _All my cats ran outside and I can’t find them!!!_ ****  
**_The Mom Friend™:_ ** _You had too many anyways._ ****  
**_NotTurbid:_ ** _Whats going on?_ ****  
**_Meme Queen:_ ** _Going to the penthouse for the night._ ****  
**_El Niño:_ ** _What?_ ****  
**_British Prick:_ ** _Elyse!_ ****  
**_Meme Queen:_ ** _Have fun with the smell boys!_ ****  
**_British Prick:_ ** _WATCH THE ROAD ELYSE!!!_ ****  
**_LIL J:_ ** _Omg._ ****  
**_Micoo:_ ** _If he dies whilst youre driving at least make it painless._ ****  
**_Meg <3: _ ** _Smee will miss you._ ****  
**_Meg <3: _ ** _I am now Smee’s favourite._ ****  
**_Cueball Head:_ ** _Pull out your spare beds Ramsey we’re all staying at your place until the mansion clears out._  
**_Baby Boy:_ ** _I’m bringing all seven of my cats with me!_  
**_LindsAYYYY:_ ** _Geoff we need more space._ ****  
**_#1 Non-Anime Dad:_ ** _Jack we need more space._ ****  
**_The Mom Friend™:_ ** _I’ll get on it. If Gavin dies we have a free room for the night._ **_  
_** **_Meme Queen:_ ** _( ͡° ͜ ʖ ͡° )_ **_  
_** **_Meg <3: _ ** _Have fun on your ride home you two!_ **_  
_ ** **_British Prick:_ **_Help me._ ****

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> happy ending dont worry everything is a-okay thank you for reading! should i write more? throw me some suggestions and ill see what catches my fancy!
> 
>  
> 
> [♡PINK CLOUD♡](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzgITwK7GdM)

**Author's Note:**

> did u see any typos? have some constructive criticism to give me? i thrive on comments and kudos! ♥ just dont be an asshole. hmu on [tumblr!](http://athenake.tumblr.com/)
> 
> please PLEASE send a bunch of love over to [Fahchaus](http://fahchaus.tumblr.com/) who drew SO MUCH amazing art for this!! i commissioned these pieces and the results are simply SPECTACULAR!!! if you have the money id _strongly_ urge you to do the same - you wont be disappointed, its DEFINITELY worth it!!!!


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